How can poor people on Medicare get help with their medical expenses?
Medicare has two programs designed to assist those with low income and limited resources. Both are run by the health care financing administration, along with your state agency that handles Medicaid. The first program is the qualified Medicare beneficiary, or QMB. If you are eligible for QMB, the state will pay your monthly Medicare premiums. What’s more, you will not have to pay any Medicare deductibles or copayments. The other medical assistance program is the specified low income Medicare beneficiary, called SLMB for short. Under the SLMB program, your state pays only the monthly premium of your part b Medicare. The guidelines that determine who is eligible are different in each state. But generally, you may be able to receive QMB or SLMB if your income and the things you own fall below a certain limit. Not everything you own counts as a resource: your home and items like your car usually don’t count. But only your state can decide if you qualify for assistance. To find out if you’r
