Features

• Medicaid refers to a federal and state-funded medical care program created in 1965. The program provides health insurance coverage for low-income individuals and families. It also caters to children, disable individuals and pregnant women who cannot afford health care coverage. Each state has an agency that manages the program and determines the criteria for eligibility.
  
  

Significance

• Emergency Medicaid coverage gives any person who goes into a hospital emergency room requesting or needing an emergency examination, treatment or procedure the wherewithal to receive the necessary care for serious or grave medical issues when he does not have the ability to pay.
  
  

Function

• An individual can receive emergency Medicaid in three ways. Visit a local social services agency to apply for the coverage. Typically, you will need to bring proof of identity, residence, pay stubs, recent bank statements and other proof of assets. Another approach involves applying for the health coverage at a clinic or hospital. Individuals may also go to the Medicaid website to apply for emergency coverage. The person has to live in the state and has to meet the jurisdiction’s eligibility criteria on the day he or she applies for emergency Medicaid coverage.
  
  For example, Nevada's asset test states a household cannot have more than $2,000 in bank accounts and may not own more than one home or one car. An exception exists for infants and children up to age 19 and pregnant women.
  
  

Types

• A physician has to determine whether an individual’s condition meets the guidelines for an “emergency” medical condition. This ailment or injury may manifest as severe pain, impairment to bodily functions or significant dysfunction of a body organ, such as a liver or kidneys.
  
  

Expert Insight

• According to a study that appeared in the March 2007 Journal of the American Medical Association, conducted at the University of Carolina by Dr. Annette DuBard, most of the money spent on Emergency Medicaid in North Carolina goes for childbirth and medical issues related to pregnancy. Typically, these women do not have health care insurance for prenatal care or for family planning counseling services. Less than 1 percent of the state’s Medicaid funding went to serious conditions, such as heart disease, kidney failure or other chronic or life-threatening ailments.