I am border line being able to qualify for Medi-Cal and Food Stamps. I'm thinking of giving up mystery shopping to qualify for the government benefits. What are the pros and cons? I'm 71, getting by on Social Security. The ONLY reason I file taxes is because of the 1099's.

Do you enjoy mystery shopping? One con is the amount of SNAP you’ll actually get each month. My dad is 80 and gets $36/month. You can shop for reimbursed food only and come out better. I would never recommend someone give up income for food stamps. The advantage could be the medical. You’ll have to do the math and make your best decision.

I would if I did not have medical insurance, no food in the fridge, and met the other benchmarks. But at your age you have Medicare. You have medical insurance. Why do you need Medicaid? Is the ONLY thing disqualifying you from SNAP/EBT the income from mystery shopping? Will your quality of life improve? I don't think so. Some people (my in-law for example) qualifies for "food stamps" and gets a whopping $23 per month! Maybe you are between a rock and a hard place. Sounds like unless you hit rock bottom (losing residence, medical insurance, and unable to feed yourself), your best option is to mystery shop.

Also, you can probably get more supplimental food from your local food bank. Im unsure where you live, but in our area many churches and other organizations have drive through food banks monthly and the value far exceeds anything you would receive from SNAP. As I stated earlier, my father gets $36 month. He uses that to pay for literally nuts (almonds, pecans, cashews) and some fruit.

@1forum1 wrote:

I would if I did not have medical insurance, no food in the fridge, and met the other benchmarks. But at your age you have Medicare. You have medical insurance. Why do you need Medicaid? Is the ONLY thing disqualifying you from SNAP/EBT the income from mystery shopping? Will your quality of life improve? I don't think so. Some people (my in-law for example) qualifies for "food stamps" and gets a whopping $23 per month! Maybe you are between a rock and a hard place. Sounds like unless you hit rock bottom (losing residence, medical insurance, and unable to feed yourself), your best option is to mystery shop.

If I'm Medi-Cal i would not have to pay Medicare Part B. I would get the .$185 a month back on my Social Security.

@johnb974 wrote:

If I'm Medi-Cal i would not have to pay Medicare Part B. I would get the .$185 a month back on my Social Security.

I see. Don't know much about the coverage of Medi-Cal, but I am extremely happy with my medicare advantange. I think I chose to pay another $15 and have dental, gym membership, and some other perks. Anyway, I remember you once said that you do about $1500 or $2000 a month mystery shopping. Are you gonna give that up for $185? Seems to me you could do a $185 in 1 or 2 good days of shopping. Is mystery shopping becoming to difficult for you for some reason? Unless I was in dire straights, unable to generate that income, I would not consider it.

@1forum1 wrote:

@johnb974 wrote:

If I'm Medi-Cal i would not have to pay Medicare Part B. I would get the .$185 a month back on my Social Security.

I see. Don't know much about the coverage of Medi-Cal, but I am extremely happy with my medicare advantange. I think I chose to pay another $15 and have dental, gym membership, and some other perks. Anyway, I remember you once said that you do about $1500 or $2000 a month mystery shopping. Are you gonna give that up for $185? Seems to me you could do a $185 in 1 or 2 good days of shopping. Is mystery shopping becoming to difficult for you for some reason? Unless I was in dire straights, unable to generate that income, I would not consider it.

Mystery shops in my area are drying up. The shops i do find are paying less. Not making what I use to.

JohnB I find all of the responses above to be spot on. They have not mentioned there are medicare plans where they pay you back the monthly premium. A friend of mine is on one of them and she said since the fee went up she does not get the entire amt back but she does get most of it back. In addition, if you are on Medical you are very limited in which doctors you can go to. The available ones come and go from the plan and some of them are just not the best of the docs. My daughter pretty much has to keep finding a new doc as the one she had last time dropped out of the program. A Medicare Advantage plan with the right group for you can give you additional perks. You need to shop around. Find a plan with one of the better rated hospitals in your area and with it you will most likely get on the whole a decent group of docs and specialists. My plan allows me $175 per quarter for over the counter items. I can get things like toothpaste, headache pills, vitamins and supplements and a whole lot more with my plan like main brand hand lotion and back braces and even a bathroom scale. The range of what is considered over the counter in my plan is pretty huge. Some plans give you grocery money, some give you extra $ for out of pocket medical , dental and vision plans. Some plans give you a combo of all three. And as mentioned above the food banks are very generous in California. My friends go to one where they get food from Costco and Trader Joes.
Bottom line you can probably find a Medicare Advantage plan that will offer you more than Medical and you will have the pride and all the "fun" of mystery shopping. After all Medical will not pay for oil changes, or some fancy restaurant meals, or pay for you to buy a shirt or other clothing now and then.

John, what if you were to move to more reimbursement style shops to keep your income down? Could that allow you to do both? Can you get groceries, oil changes, car washes, etc. paid for through mystery shopping so it wouldn't add to your tax burden but would defray your everyday expenses?

I agree with others above though, it seems like it wouldn't make sense to give up $2k to save $185. I haven't seen them in a while but weren't there some shops that were actually about the different Medicare plans and their pros and cons?

I get my insurance through ACA so I'm not familiar with this at all. Just trying to send out some thoughts for you to mull over.

The window for signing up, thus shopping, Medicare Advatage is the last 2-3 months of the year. You can also sign up within 3 months of turning 65.

I have a Medicare plan. I am now doing online surveys to make extra cash.

Medicare Advantage is different than Medicare. And IMHO, from the shops I've done, a better option.

I have a Medicare Advantage HMO PLAN.

My Insurance Advantage plan pays $160 of the $188. It is because I am a Veteran and get my medicines from the VA.

My friend had a plan thru Scan before and now has a plan thru United. Both gave her a rebate on most of her monthly amt taken out of her social security. it is not just those two companies tho. Several others have plans like that and they are not for veterans, anyone can get them. Also this year they have extended the open enrollment. I get annoying calls all day long wanting me to switch to one of their plans. They scream in my ear the times when I answer the phone to ask me if I can hear them. I had great hearing until I started answering those phone calls.

In Indiana, you can have Medicare and Medicaid. Oak Street Health markets to these people. It goes from paying the Medicare premium each month to covering deductables and co-pays. If you have this coverage, then it may be worth it. Many on SSID are in this situation and have wide range of doctors to chose from.

Given the push to cut Medicaid, I don't think I'd go that route...

@mysterioso412 wrote:

Given the push to cut Medicaid, I don't think I'd go that route...

I thought about that and I agree

I think a lot of programs will be cut. In my state, there are moves on to cut Medicaid funding for autism services and also other services. The federal government will be pushing more programs to the states and I suspect there will be cut backs. I know that the shops posted lately are poor paying- seems they are getting lower paying for more work then in the past - I would advise you NOT to quit shopping for the programs you mentioned. Good luck

The linger you can be active and engaged balancing income and benefits the better in the long run.

If you do end up deciding to try it you can always go back to Medicare and mystery shopping. The Medicare premiums are based on income from a prior year but they do have exceptions if your current income has changed and dropped considerably. I would not think you would be charged for part B if you were on Medical. But check it out.

Pre- pandemic, a Boomer friend of mine got $15 a month in food stamps. They reassessed his case, then upped it to $16. It was kind of a running joke with us- don't spend it all in one place, etc. Pandemic hits and he get between 2 and 3 hundred a month. That continued for a year or two until he passed.

That two to three hundred ended a year ago... Went down to the teens.