Do you ever feel like you can’t handle the stress anymore

amother

Sun, Jan 08 2023, 11:27 am

For the first time in our marriage, I intentionally made too much money for food stamps/ medicaid to try and get us out of the poverty cycle . Now I am making $55,000 (whereas before we we’re making $35,000). Insurance plus all associated healthcare costs were over $30,000 for the year . Obviously also lost out on food stamp’s which was about $10,000. I can continue this path of trying to increase my income about $10-20k a year with my personal business instead of teaching but question is if we can survive till then.
I am rethinking if we can do this. The stress is eating me up. We owe over $30,000 in debt from this year. I have had to start taking blood pressure meds and a beta blocker, this is obviously not good for my heart and physical health. I am working insane hours, can’t push myself any more.

What’s the right thing? It’s only been a year of being too rich for Medicaid and we can barely function.

Long term, if we can survive this for 2-3 years my business has great potential but how to make it till then with working 12 hours a day and no money for anything extra or unexpected.

amother

Turquoise

Sun, Jan 08 2023, 11:45 am

You earned 55k and you couldn't get any medicaid benefits? How many kids do you have? Depends on your state but the income limit is usually a lot higher for kids, in which case you should only need to pay for insurance for you and spouse. And what about marketplace? There's no way you should be paying 30k.

amother

Sun, Jan 08 2023, 11:59 am

amother Turquoise wrote:

We are paying about $1500 a month for the marketplace plan, the $30,000 is including copays, prescriptions (I am on about 8 regular prescriptions a month, had 2 surgeries this year, my son had one, etc) , etc.
we have 2 kids, we would need to be under $55, 000 for them to stay on but right now trying to earn every penny I can and we ended up over it. I probably could have made it work if we would have tried hard but right now just trying everything to bring in income and growth at any cost with the hope for long term survival.

amother

Sun, Jan 08 2023, 12:00 pm

Librarian wrote:

I am not sure of the exact details but I think because of Covid you can stay on Medicaid until 2024 even if your income went up

We are actually set up for a hearing to fight that out (that they kicked us off too abruptly as soon as reported change in income ) but meanwhile we are paying out of pocket.

amother

Banana

Sun, Jan 08 2023, 12:02 pm

amother OP wrote:

No great ideas for you but plz remember that all out of pocket (post tax) medical bill expenditures are tax deductible above 7.5% of your AGI (maybe 10% now can’t remember). In those years where we had 30k med bills it helped

amother

Sun, Jan 08 2023, 12:07 pm

amother Banana wrote:

It doesn’t really help in my case because we have so many deductions but we want to report a higher income so that we can be eligible for small business loans at a much lower interest rate than we are currently paying. Basically if we don’t report that we made any profit, we won’t get the mortgage approved for our new addition for the business, and then my earning potential goes out the window.

amother

DarkOrange

Sun, Jan 08 2023, 12:17 pm

Remember the goal. Remember why you don't want to stay hooked on the addiction of free welfare. Because like everything enticing, it has major drawbacks.
For the next few years cut back on everything. Food, clothing, entertainment... everything possible.
See if you can find a better health insurance plan. Especially if you are generally healthy...

amother

Bergamot

Sun, Jan 08 2023, 9:11 pm

I am with you.

I worked so hard to get a masters degree in a good field. I have a good job relatively speaking but our tuition bills and expenses are so high. And I work 2-3 side jobs on top of my full time job. I'm so exhausted and drained and deeply in debt on top of it all. It doesn't seem fair to be working so hard with so little to show for it.

amother

Caramel

Sun, Jan 08 2023, 9:17 pm

Posts like these really make me understand why people lie on their applications.
The system is set up to fail us. Either we’re trapped in poverty or we try to get out and we’re punished with even more poverty.
People don’t want to steal they just want a normal life.

amother

Phlox

Sun, Jan 08 2023, 9:55 pm

amother Caramel wrote:

THIS THIS THIS

I have a very similar situation to OP
It's ridiculous
You can cut expenses to bare minimum with no kids or really young children
Teens and tweens need certain things just for their emotional development [yada yada - I dont mean nutty luxuries just minimum standards]
you either are able to jump your earnings significantly or fall into an abyss which isnt for the faint of heart