The ACA "Coverage Gap" is all too real and I'm living smack-dab in the middle of it.

All:

I gotta run--ironically, in light of what this post is about--to get my annual blood work ahead of my check-up, all of which will be paid for entirely out of pocket this year, since I have no health insurance--but I really, really want to post this first.  It's important, please, please read this article (linked).

I can't tell you how many well-meaning friends (mostly who are ensconced in Blue states, so they have no clue about this, which is understandable), keep arguing with me and insisting that surely I am incorrect about not being eligible for ANY discounts on premiums on the ACA (Obamacare), now that I am between jobs ever since October (my insurance from work ended at the end of September).  These well-meaning, caring friends, keep INSISTING, quite vociferously, that surely I am not understanding the complexities of the ACA, and surely I'm eligible for a discount on the rates, as are most people, especially since my income is ZERO.

Those well-meaning friends are all wrong, and I'm, frankly, so tired of having to argue the point, because the whole situation is terribly upsetting and downright terrifying, and I don't want to have to keep talking about it, or one of these days I just might burst into tears, and then where will we be?

So I will (briefly, I promise) summarize the situation again, but this time I brought back-up:  the linked article.

The situation is this, and I have learned all of this since becoming jobless and attempting to ascertain what discounts I qualify for on the ACA's website, and learning that the answer is:  BUPKUS:  the ACA was conceived and planned to work in tandem with Medicaid.  That means that, people earning a high income would pay full price, people earning a middle or lower income would be eligible for discounts, and people--like me right now--who have ZERO income, would be referred by the ACA website to their state's Medicaid sites, and would get on Medicaid, at either no cost or a very, very low cost.  However, FLORIDA (which I love, but in this case:  😠), which is one of only 13 states, initially--now down to 12--that did this, decided to TURN DOWN something called "Medicaid Expansion", that Obama provided to the states to expand their Medicaid programs to work in tandem with the ACA.  Florida did this because it is run by rabid Republicans who, at the time and likely still to this day, couldn't stand President Obama and tried to obstruct anything and everything the man did at every turn, particularly the ACA.

Fast forward to Edna going onto the ACA site a few months ago and learning that I do not qualify for ANY discounts, and that I needed to proceed on to the link they provided for Medicaid.  At which point I learned that I don't qualify for Medicaid in Florida at all, which is somehow apparently due to the fact that, even though I have ZERO income (hello, what is wrong with this state?), because I am childless, I am somehow not a person who it matters if I live or die, is my takeaway, and therefore NO MEDICAID FOR YOU!  NEXT!

That is the truth.  No matter how much my friends in regular states (and some here in Florida who are from Blue states) insist I must be wrong, I'm shockingly, incredibly and infuriatingly not.  And, again, I can't stand arguing about this because it makes me want to simultaneously punch a wall and burst into tears.  So, please, read this article, and stop telling me that surely I'm missing something and I should hurry up and get onto the ACA.  I wish I could get onto the ACA, but I can't.  Witness:

Link: Please, please read this article about "The Coverage Gap"