Two representatives from Alaska Legal Services are visiting Unalaska this weekend to help seniors navigate Medicaid eligibility.
“This is not so much something you can ask your senator or congress or the governor to handle because there seems to be this issue with Medicaid eligibility," Unalaska's Mayor Shirley Marquardt said. "It just kept coming back to that one odd piece. We have seniors that are literally living on the poverty line. They get their social security check and that’s it every month. They don’t complain about that. They’re fine with that. They say, 'I can live on that, but I can’t fly to Anchorage and I can’t stay in a hotel and I can’t take cabs back in forth to get the care I need.' And that’s what Medicaid does."
She says simply having property in your name -- even if it’s fallow -- can make a senior ineligible for Medicaid. That's because land is considered an asset.
“We have APIA who has funding through the state and the ability to provide some services," Marquardt said. "But they just didn’t seem to translating into services for some of the services that you would look at and say wow that was exactly who that program or service was designed for yet they are unable to access it.”
But the Mayor thinks that will change when more seniors become Medicaid eligible.
Friday at 6:30 p.m. at the Father Gromoff Senior Center, the visiting lawyers from Alaska Legal Services will be holding a nuts and bolts Medicaid presentation. It will cover income and resource eligibility guidelines as well as some ways to qualify for the service even if you have been denied in the past.
On Saturday, they will be available for one-on-one discussions with seniors and their families.
