Medicaid/Medical Assistance
Medical Assistance (MA), also known as Medicaid, pays for health care services for low income individuals and families who cannot afford it. Because the funding for MA comes from different places and the groups of people who can qualify are different, there are many different categories of assistance. The PA Department of Human Services provides state funded (General Assistance) medical assistance. There are also a number of federally funded categories of medical assistance such as:
- TANF-related (families with minor children);
- disabled-related categories such as
- SSI,
- Healthy Horizons,
- Medical Assistance for Workers with Disabilities,
- Waiver Programs,
- Long Term Care (Nursing Home),
- and PH-95 (families with disabled children).
All categories of medical assistance carry income and resource limits with the exception of the TANF category which has no resource limit.
FAQs
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I am disabled and working, can I qualify for Medical Assistance?
If you are between the ages of 16 and 64 and disabled, but are able to work you may be eligible for Medical Assistance (Medicaid) in the MAWD Program.
To qualify for MAWD you must have a disability that would satisfy the Social Security Administration’s definition of “disability”, but you are not required to be receiving or to apply for SSI or SSDI benefits to be eligible for MAWD.
You must also be working on a regular basis, receive wages from that work, and be able to provide proof of your employment and earnings. Self-employment qualifies as work so long as it generates income. There is no minimum amount of work required to qualify for MAWD and there are no restrictions on the type of work a person can perform to qualify for Medical Assistance in the MAWD Program.
