has anyone here been on medicaid?

hi US ILXORS --

I'm wondering if anyone here has spent any significant length of time on a medicaid or similar program.

I'll be eligible for medicaid (for at least a few months) and am thinking of doing that (since it costs $0) rather than purchasing a cheap but shitty insurance plan via healthcare.gov. but having been on HMOs and PPOs my entire adult life I really have no idea how medicaid works. I've heard some stories about not a lot of providers accepting medicaid, and thus those on medicaid don't have access to the best providers. on the other hand, it's free.... as usual the internet is full of too much info, some of it confusing or contradictory, so i'm curious about personal, anecdotal experiences....

My husband is on a Medicaid HMO. Will you be going on one, or will you be allowed to use traditional pay-for-service?

Our daughter has been on Medicaid for a long time. Portland has a publically funded hospital, a teaching hospital connected to a public university, so we were able to find a physician willing to accept Medicaid patients with relatively little trouble. If locally you mostly have small private doctor-owned clinics and few or no hospitals nearby, then getting a physician to accept you as a regular Medicaid patient could be pretty hit-or-miss.

Yeah, and better check your state's site, if you haven't already done that; options can vary quite a bit, state-by-state.

it varies by state, and locat ion. I have friends on MediCal (the California equiv) who are happy with it, (esp. compared to not being insured).

Bump.