Assuming you qualify, that’s an option. In Liam’s and other kids cases, we could also look into CHIP (assuming this is still a thing in the future.)
I suppose it depends a bit on why you lost coverage. If you lost your job but were able to get another one relatively quickly, then I agree that you would be fine.
If you lost your job because you have a major medical problem that would take a few months to recover from, I don’t know if your employer is required to hold your position for you. Then you’ve had several months off of work, likely exhausted your savings. You’re going to have more difficulty getting another job once you get better. You may be able to get on Medicaid at that point, but then you’ve lost everything!
Health is the number one reason people declare bankruptcy. Exchange plans can have really high deductibles too! If you’ve already exhausted your savings, then how do you pay for those?
In most first world countries, this wouldn’t be anywhere near this big of a problem. Medical costs even without insurance tend to be significantly lower in those countries.
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Yes people declare bankruptcy over health all the time but that’s a tool that’s there to protect them. I don’t understand why it’s always cast in such a negative light… have a major medical problem and run up a bill that would be impossible to pay.—- just declare bankruptcy and you don’t have to… it’s a protection for the person. I’m tremendouslt thankful that this possibility exists… sure it’s hard on your credit for a few years but so what?
My brother in law (a car salesman) ran up a medical bill in excess of $2M dollars… being able to declare bankruptcy and have it completely forgiven was the best thing that ever happened to him
You’ve lost everything by then though. All your assets, right?
And you’re living under a bridge…so definitely no mail order prescriptions. 
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I don’t know the finer points of how it works… he didn’t have much to lose to begin with. I think “essential assets” like your home are protected generally, but I wouldn’t be the one to ask. I bet @livingandlearning201 could give us a brief summary of what happens when an individual declares bankruptcy…
No, but it does require a lot of work and insistence and follow through.
This assumes you own. If you rent (or if you own), and you can’t afford to pay the monthly rent (or mortgage), whether you lose it in bankruptcy process or not is moot since you’re going to lose it anyway since you can’t pay for it. Losing job has major repercussions to someone’s entire life…not just one aspect. So while you’re worrying about where to live, how to drive to a job that you don’t have, what to eat, where to sleep, how to provide for your family, etc., etc.,…you also have to worry about providing somehow for diabetes and not …literally dying. I wish everything were as simple as the magic insulin fairy swooping in and fixing everything for you once you lose your job/insurance. There is a domino effect.
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Also if your control on R and NPH is worse, you risk all sorts of complications, which you also won’t have coverage to get preventative exams or treatments for (retinopathy is good example of something where it makes a huge difference to catch it early), or perhaps to treat even when urgent.
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On the topic of how all of this can completely ruin people’s lives, I’m reading the book “Evicted” which gets into how f***ed up and systemic severe poverty is, particularly in the many ways once someone starts having problems, those problems can inherently accumulate and prevent them from later moving out of poverty. Highly recommended reading, and it’s actually a surprisingly gripping and engaging read since much of it is written in the style of a novel across a number of real people’s stories.
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Reading up on bankruptcy… sounds like in general all retirement accounts, 401k / 403b / IRA / 457 etc are protected from creditors in a bankruptcy filing… for a lot of people that’s where the majority of their wealth is, so that’s good news that it could always be tapped into to pay for medical supplies if needed, even after a bankruptcy
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According to the most recent statistics, only 16% of Americans have 401k plans. Many jobs don’t offer these. I have one, but I consider myself very fortunate. Around 54 million Americans have 401k plans in 2018. That’s in a population of nearly 327 million people.
People with security in the form of a job, insurance, 401k plan, pension, etc., are often more jaded about circumstances than those without the same benefits.
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I think the point everyone is trying to make is that life is rough if you don’t have a job/insurance. Yes, you can find a way to scrape by, but it’s certainly not living. It’s surviving. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.
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The 327 million is counting children and elderly people. I think the percentage of working adults would be far higher than 16%… neither my wife or I have ever(or would ever) had a job in adulthood that didn’t offer some form of retirement plan…
And you’ve both been very fortunate. Congratulations. Same with me…but there are many many businesses that don’t offer this perk.
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Many adults live paycheck to paycheck and almost half of American households don’t have $400 to spare for an emergency, so for many, savings plans are kind of irrelevant anyway.
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Also using your 401k for an emergency is a terrible idea—if you think there’s any reason you’d need to withdraw the money sooner, you’d want to have stored it otherwise.
Yeah no doubt losing a job and insurance sucks and taking money out of a 401k without careful planning is a dumb move. But we’re talking about survival here not things we’d do in an ideal situation…
And if you saved your money elsewhere you probably wouldn’t still have it following bankruptcy
I think you might be able to withdraw from a 401k for medical reasons without being penalized.
My 401k gives me a pretty decent interest rate every year too.
I have some very resourceful friends who recently got on Medical and while it’s better than nothing – it’s actually quite a tactical challenge to navigate their systems. My impression is that people who lose their jobs are also juggling a lot of other challenges mentally, and so this is just one more apple to keep in the air. So while it’s yes, certainly possible to arrange things just so in order to get Medicaid, my guess is many of these people wind up slipping through the cracks because they lack the savvy or mental reserves to navigate this system.
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