Income limits usually apply still. In my state, its up to 32K for pregnant women or for those with a child under age 1. For children 1 and 5 it goes down to about 20K.
If you're above those limits, no medicaid. You can go on ACA/Obamacare plans but those are (much) more expensive even with subsidies, at least in my state.
A birth all in all is surely way above 10k dollars. So people are literally expected to pay 5k+ to have a child? If that's not stressful enough for many poorer people I don't know either
If it's an emergency of some sort, it's probably 100% covered. The thing though is that MedicAid is run similarly to Medicare where private insurers get involved but provide really shitty plans with terrible formularies and very limited choices for providers. Also, there's widespread healthcare provider bias, stigma, and discrimination against MedicAid patients.
> Out of pocket costs cannot be imposed for emergency services, family planning services, pregnancy-related services, or preventive services for children. Generally, out of pocket costs apply to all Medicaid enrollees except those specifically exempted by law and most are limited to nominal amounts. Exempted groups include children, terminally ill individuals, and individuals residing in an institution
There's an incredible variety of health care needed in the 9 months before birth, and well after. That care is poorly covered in the US compared to most developed nations.
We were both in college when my first child was born with one $13/hr summer internships's worth of income. Medicaid covered 100% of everything; I paid $0 out of pocket.
This is false. Medicaid coverage is better than even European healthcare systems. It will cover rare disease drugs that aren’t paid for in the EU (it has to by law).
Plus the OOP expenses are basically zero.
While true not all doctor accept new Medicaid patients, you can find care.