Medically needy

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

I have a friend who is trying to receive medicaid.
She brought me a letter to translate it for her, and there are some pharagraphs I don’t understand. I tired to call local medicaid office to ask some questions, but they don’t pick up the phone…

Could you explain them for me please?

  1. The medically needy program can help pay for Medicaid-covered services. Individuals enrolled in the medically needy program have income or assests that exceed the limits for regular medicaid. A certain amount of medical bills must be incurred each month before medicaid is approved. This is your “share of cost”.
    (Her share of cost is $2187.00.)

  2. What is “share of cost”? your share of cost is the amount of midical bills that you must have before medicaid can pay any of your other incurred medical bills for you. your share of cost works like a deducatible on a health insurance policy. your share of cost is based on your family’s monthly income. you must incur medical expenses equal to the amount of your share of cost each month before you can become eligible for medicaid for the rest of the month.

2

Because she has a certain amount of income, she has to pay the first $2187 of any medical bills each month. Once she has done so, any further expenses that month are paid for by medicaid, providing the illness/medical service is included in the plan.

If her medical bills for the month are under $2187 then medicaid won’t provide any help that month.

This applies each month.

3

Thank you for resonding.

Could you explain this one more time? The bold-faced is the thing that make me confusing the whole sentence. My dictionary does not help me to understand it.

“Your share of cost is the amount of midical bills that you must have before medicaid can pay any of your other incurred medical bills for you.”

4

any more medical bills that your friend is subject to - any more bills that she would have to pay herself if she couldn’t get some sort of aid.

So imagine this:

In month 1, your friend has medical bills of $3000:
Your friend would have to pay $2187, then medicaid would pay £813

In month 2, your friend has medical bills of $2000:
Your friend would have to pay the full amount of $2000 because it is under $2187. Medicaid would not pay anything.

In month 3, your friend has medical bills of $5000:
Your friend would have to pay $2187, then medicaid would pay $2813.

In month 4, your friend has medical bills of $180:
Your friend would have to pay the full amount of $180 because it is under $2187. Medicaid would not pay anything.

In month 5, your friend has an operation resulting in medical bills of $25000:
Your friend would have to pay $2187, then medicaid would pay $22813.

The most your friend would have to pay each month is $2187. If her medical bills for the month are less than that then she will have to pay whatever the bills come to.