She may have messed up her ACA income eligibility by having all that taxable GoFundMe income in 2023-24.
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She’d still be eligible for a policy, just not a subsidy. However, subsidies are based on expected income for the coming year so if she doesn’t expect much income for 2024 she could still get a subsidy.
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Gifts are not counted as income in ACA’s MAGI calculations
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Wishing her the very best; it appears as though she may have also had a stroke (or at least it looked like one side of her face has significantly more mobility than the other side).
I don’t know what the interview will contain, but I hope that her story will compel more people to make sure to figure out how to get health insurance, and that the U.S. will figure out how to make good care affordable for everyone.
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Perhaps an even more difficult-to-solve problem is the complexity of getting and paying for medical care and getting and paying for medical insurance, since there are numerous different insurance systems one could be in, depending on factors not relevant to your health (i.e. age 65+ or not, income level, employment status, etc.), and many of them are rather complex in terms of the choices one has to make.
She lives in Texas. 13M people were just dropped from Medicaid for being over the income limits There was a federal program during covid to keep people from being dropped,but that expired. During covid, minimum wage and inflation took over, but no one raised the maximum limits on programs like medicaid. Before covid, the max might have been $14k or so per year but that was what people might make on min wage, but now with min wage going way up in many states, people making min wage no longer qualify.
The article I read said she had insurance but when covid hit she lost all her speaking engagements and couldn’t afford insurance at $800+ per month. It was also about the time she got divorced, so her expenses went up and her income went down. Also about that time (2018?) a lot of individual insurers dropped private coverage. My brother is self employed and his company just went out of business and he didn’t know it. He probably could have been more diligent, but her went for a year without, and I just reminded him this Dec to sign up and he did.
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It is a state program so can vary, but no, you usually qualify for medicaid based on your income on the day you apply. If you lose your job on July 1, you can qualify even if you’ve already earned more in the year than would be allowed.
My friend’s brother was taken to the hospital on July 4. We don’t even know how much he had earned that year (or withdrawn from his 401k) and he qualified immediately. (We are in an expanded medicaid state)
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She thought she couldn’t afford medical insurance. She probably couldn’t afford to continue the medical insurance she had at the time (which was most likely a private insurance plan). People are uninformed about marketplace insurance and the costs and that you can have prior conditions etc. (Heck, people on this thread were wrong on many of these counts.)
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Did anyone see her interview with Hoda this morning? It looks like she may have several health issues, including dozens of orthopedic surgeries?!! Her daughter kept answering for her. Poor woman.
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Here is part of the interview. She now has insurance.
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Yes, but it seems as if she would have made loads of money over the years and saved it, invested, it, etc. (Real estate agents (or sales people or self-employed people) come to mind - you don’t spend everything you make that year because the next year might not be as good.) Of course, I have no idea about her financial situation!
For me, health insurance is a top priority, even if it just covers major medical.
She lives in a 9000 sqft house in Houston.
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She deliberately CHOSE not to buy health insurance through the exchange because she didn’t want to spend the money on it. Because she’s a celebrity, she then successfully BEGGED for money to cover her medical bills, and fools gave it to her. Shame on her. Shame on them for being so gullible.
I’m sure that she could easily have paid for her health insurance on the exchange. It probably would have been about 1000/month for a bronze level plan, with an 8500 deductible. I bet she pays that much a month for a hobby, or pets, or yard care.
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no she does not
She lives in Boerne TX outside of San Antonio. It looks to be about 2,200 square feet and valued at $4-500,000.
She sold the large home in 2009, moved to WV, then back to TX in 2012.
Not sure how accurate all that is, but the GMA interview did state she lived in Boerne.
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I guess Google was inaccurate.
Sounds like she did live in a 9000 sqft house but has downsized.
15 years ago. Seems irrelevant.
She got divorced and lost all her speaking engagements during covid. Takes a toll on one’s income.
No one was required to contribute to her Go Fund Me.
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