SSI: Medicaid Eligibility

ROSEMARY: One of the important things for school staff and families to realize is that at age 18, many students will become eligible for SSI and Medicaid who weren't before. Because it's based on the student's income after age 18, the family's before. So at 18, a student might become eligible for SSI and Medicaid who hadn't been before. So this important piece of the transition is to look into the subject. It's really complicated, and the longer I did this work with families the more I discover I don't know, the more complications, the more doors into Medicaid. So I try to at least gives parents a little push in the right direction, and how they are able to then take some steps to get SSI and Medicaid for their student, for their child. But it is cash in hand. So if you qualify for SSI, Supplemental Security Income, through the Social Security Administration, you automatically start getting a certain amount of cash-- between $400 something and $600 something a month. And an important part of that is you become automatically eligible for Medicaid at that point. So for some people, that's the important part, really more than the cash that comes in per month. So it's something to look into. And there's a website called yourtexasbenefits.com, and that's a good starting point for a family to look into how to become eligible. SPEAKER 2: Piggybacking on Rosemary's point about how sometimes it's the Medicaid eligibility that's more important than the income element coming from SSI, is something to think about when planning for your student who will eventually have the components of an adult life, all on their own, is not only what are the sources of income. But what are the sources of health care? For many of us, we'll be able to carry our kids on our insurance, our health insurance policies until they're in their mid 20s. But after that, they're either going to need to be covered by insurance that's coming from their own employment or someplace else. For many of our kids, that's going to be Medicaid. So even for a student who is possibly going to have the earning potential that would knock them out of SSI eligibility, it's still worth considering the health care question. And whether or not planning needs to happen at an earlier stage to keep them Medicaid eligible for that purpose. ROSEMARY: So many other programs are really based on Medicaid eligibility, including the Medicaid waiver programs. So it might be important to be able to establish that eligibility. So I encourage families to look into the SSI piece for either the cash or also the Medicaid eligibility in the future. Thank you.