Hi, I'm 17 years old, living in Pennsylvania. My mom is in her 60s, single, and not a US citizen (green card). She does not have a good understanding of the US tax system. My father was an American citizen who met her abroad and brought her to the US. She didn't make much money in 2020 due to COVID impacting her work schedule. She made about $9000 through work, then another $8000 through what I believe was some sort of life insurance policy or social security dispensing (my father passed away when I was 10 and she has received this money every month since). This totals to about $17,000, and she has told me that if her income isn't ~$17,500 she is going to be put back on Medicaid.
She seems very very frightened of this. She had to be on Medicaid a few years ago and she said the doctors she had to switch to were terrible, and she was constantly worried. I was young but I do remember this year and I do remember her having constant issues with the medical system. She is also getting older now and I think she worries even more about her health. She has asked for my help with this to try and find some more money to put on her earned income, so I have been going through her investments paperwork (some money my dad left) to see if we can find her the next few hundred dollars to put down. She's also worried to put down her medical bills as deductions on her income tax return (she spent about $3000 on medical bills in 2020), as she fears this would only decrease that $17,000 (does this even work that way??).
My questions are:
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Is she right to be scared of being put on Medicaid? From my understanding its a good thing, and she'd be saving a lot of money.
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Would putting down her medical bills as deductions hurt her at all in this situation? Once again, to my understanding deductibles are only a good thing (reducing your taxable income).
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Is there anything additional I can do to help her in this situation? (Any programs, special rules that apply to low income/COVID impacted families, etc.)
Thanks a lot for the help.
Submitted February 21, 2021 at 07:32PM by switchu555 https://ift.tt/2ZIPfqZ
