Silent Storm 0906 (RE: Vestal: Idaho's Medicaid gap): My husband and I live in Idaho and have had insurance issues. Our two kids have Medicaid thankfully, but my husband and I don't and we make too much for subsidy/his new job offers "affordable" insurance. I have muscular dystrophy and should have regular doctors appointments to keep an eye on it, but I haven't been since 2012.

Last year we did pay for the insurance though his work, but it was basically unusable on $30k a year income ($3000 deductible and $6500 out of pocket). From 2006 till 2014 him and I were uninsured. He got laid off in July due to Kimball shutting down, so we lost insurance (that was useless anyway) but even when we only had unemployment we only qualified for under $200 a month subsidy which barley covered the cost of an eligible plan. He recently started working again so we're not eligible for insurance for the 90 day probationary period, and even then it's still high. I am a disabled full time college student (who doesn't qualify for ssi or ssdi) and I thankfully had the help of voc rehab to get University of Idahos student health insurance, but the deductible is still hard for us to afford.

My husband goes to NIC, but they don't offer insurance, so for half of this year he will be uninsured and we just hope nothing happens to need it. We don't go to the doctors unless we absolutely need it and are then paying on the bill for months at the minimum they'll accept. Our hope is one day that I can use my schooling to find a job that will allow us to get insurance, but our fear is that my muscles will get even worse (right now affect my waking and left shoulder /arm) and I won't be able to work. We're trying to pull a head, but it's a struggle.