Anyone who benefits from Medicaid is restricted by asset limits. To receive Medicaid, you are not allowed to have more than two grand a month in your bank account. If you go over $2,000 a month, your benefits will be taken away.
This is what many refer to as forced poverty. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the current poverty line is set at $15,650 annually, which breaks down to $1,304 per month. In order to receive life-saving medical care, I am forced to live in poverty.
To monitor this, Medicaid recipients must recertify their disability and financial status every year. I have to submit bank and savings statements along with the cost of any vehicle or property that I own every year. The only way to hold more than two grand of assets is to open a special needs trust or an able account.
An able account is like a regular checking account, but to qualify for an able account the holder must have acquired their disability by the age of 26. I don’t qualify, as my disability occurred when I was 33. However, in 2026, the age requirement will increase to 46.
I have a special needs trust, as I’m divorced and received a settlement. However, I must request to use any money held in the trust. I have a trust fund manager who controls how I use my money. Whatever is to be paid must be paid by the trust fund manager and not through me. The trust cannot pay for food or shelter, nor can I request cash from the trust.
When I die, any money left in the trust will go to the state of Colorado and not to a beneficiary of my choosing.
This really angers me. I can’t have control over my own money. I can’t decide how to spend the money, and I have no control over my money after I die. My medical benefits are used as a weapon against me.
Being on Medicaid does not mean that you get free money. It requires a balancing act to stay within asset limits to continue receiving benefits.
Along with asset limits, Medicaid beneficiaries are also penalized for marrying. If two Medicaid beneficiaries were to marry, their asset limits increase from $2,000 to $3,000 total.
A disability decides how I can live my life. As if being disabled wasn’t hard enough.
It’s shocking to me that all these rules are not known by the general public. I think that’s why nothing has changed. It’s easy to ignore things that aren’t clear.
People who receive Medicaid benefits are restricted by outdated rules. Instead of fighting to save Medicaid, we should be fighting to reform it.
Jenn Ochs lives in Boulder. She is a disability rights advocate, award-winning columnist and a graduate from Baylor University in Texas.