Undocumented Parents Going to Lose Medi-Cal, Mom is Close to Chronic Illness Diagnosis, Need Advice on Keeping Insurance

Hello all, please excuse my wordiness. My undocumented/not legally presenting parents (mom 54, dad 56) received a letter that they will lose their Medi-Cal at the end of October because they were about $400 over the 138% or so poverty limit. Due to their immigration status, they cannot apply for Covered CA. We live in LA county, 91766, and they have LA-Care.

The thing is, my mom has been in the process of getting diagnosed with lupus but her results haven't come back yet. She has an appt. of results for the 23rd, but that seems really close to cutting it if we want to try to tell Medi-Cal that my mom has a newfound disability. I really want my mom to get a diagnosis and get a treatment plan, but losing insurance threatens that.

So, do I make an appeal with LA Care to see if they can give us a few months or a year, trying to appeal to the fact that my mom does need care atm or that we are so close to the income limit?

Do I make my parents enroll in Medi-Cal again, since their income is lower this year? Or, how can I tell Medi-Cal that before they lose Medi-Cal?

Do I try to find private insurance (Anthem, Molina, Blue Shield of CA, Kaiser, Health.Net are our nearby choices)? They both have had ITINs for years.

Has anyone has experience filing an appeal for this sort of thing? My parents have been asking around, and they've been told to not appeal. I can't tell if it's a valid concern of it it's fear mongering (ifykyk, if you have immigrant relatives or friends haha).

I've yet to call LA Care to see what they want in the appeal or disability claim, but I would love to hear from people who have some sort of idea on what might be the best call or if they have experience with such cases.

Thank you all in advance for your help, and I'm so sorry for the bunch of questions. I'm still researching and looking for answers, but I wanted to see if any of you all had any idea about this.

submitted by /u/SageAndWolf
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