Healthcare costs can be financially devastating — but a robust assistance infrastructure exists specifically for this challenge. Here is how to use it.
Healthcare Cost Assistance: An Underused Landscape
Healthcare costs are uniquely destabilizing for household finances — unpredictable in timing, potentially catastrophic in magnitude, and essential (you cannot simply choose not to need healthcare). The assistance infrastructure for healthcare costs is also uniquely robust, including government insurance programs, hospital financial assistance requirements, pharmaceutical manufacturer programs, and community health resources. Most of this infrastructure is significantly underused because people do not know it exists or how to access it.
Medicaid: Check Eligibility First
Medicaid is the first resource to check for any household with limited income and healthcare cost challenges. Post-ACA Medicaid expansion covers adults with incomes up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level in states that adopted the expansion. Eligibility is determined by household income and size, and enrollment is available year-round. Healthcare.gov provides eligibility screening and enrollment assistance. Many people who would qualify for Medicaid have not applied — particularly individuals who previously worked in jobs without health insurance and have become accustomed to being uninsured.
Community Health Centers
Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) serve patients regardless of ability to pay, charging on a sliding scale based on income. These centers provide primary care, dental care, behavioral health, and other services at costs proportional to income — potentially as low as $0 for very low income patients. Find the nearest FQHC at findahealthcenter.hrsa.gov.
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