Medi-Cal vs. Covered California / Medi-Cal eligibility

I am a working-age California resident.

In the first quarter of last year, I left a job voluntarily. Because it was voluntary I did not bother to apply for unemployment. I did not have another job lined up.

As I had coverage with Kaiser through my employer, my first call was to them to ask about Cobra. I was pretty quickly transferred to a Kaiser agent who wanted to work through a Covered California application with me. We did that, but at the end of the process they had some technical failure with regard to me verifying my SSN, so they gave up and transferred me to a Covered California agent.

I did not quite know how to answer their question about income, because my answer was basically, “I expect to be employed again at some point this year, but it’s hard to say when, and so anything I tell you will only be a guesstimate.” So the CC agent concluded that since my total 2022 income from the job I just left fell under the limit, and since I did not have any other income, I was eligible for Medi-Cal.

This seemed odd to me since my occupation pays fairly well and I did expect to be employed again at some point that year. “Can’t I just get subsidies through CC and then pay them back once I’m working again?” I asked. Their answer was that with Medi-Cal, so long as I advise them of any changes to income, I don’t actually have to pay anything back. I didn’t really expect to use the plan anyway, i.e. I just wanted catastrophic coverage, and so I agreed to do that.

So for the past 11 months, I’ve been on Medi-Cal. I have not used the plan in any way, have not seen a doctor, have not called anyone about anything with the exception of the initial application process.

It is time to renew my eligibility, and here is my concern: When I went through the application process last year, they asked about “cash on hand.” Now, at the time I did have some money in the bank, but that money was set aside for living expenses like rent and food, which I considered to be priorities that came before health insurance. It felt like the question was more about “disposable cash” and so I reported that no, i did not have cash on hand. Looking back, that was probably the wrong answer. There was zero intent to deceive on my part, however I’m now concerned that I’ve basically been enrolled in Medi-Cal fraudulently.

As it turns out, I am still unemployed. I am very close to being out of cash, am living on credit card advances, and I have a traditional IRA that I will tap into as a last resort. So, unlike last year, I’m pretty sure that I am now legitimately eligible for Medi-Cal. (I don’t think my IRA counts as an asset but please correct me if I’m wrong.)

Let’s say I renew and at some point thereafter I obtain services. Might they do some digging and discover that I did actually have some cash in 2022? My understanding is that if I am eligible for Medi-Cal then I am NOT eligible for CC subsidies, so even though at this point I would feel better about reversing course and getting myself on a CC plan, that may not be financially feasible for me.

I would like to have a conversation with someone from Medi-Cal about this, but not sure how wise it would be for me to share what I have shared here. Maybe it would be better to just return my renewal docs and proceed as if I’ve been eligible all along? Does it even matter since I haven’t actually obtained any services? Am I just being paranoid?

Apologies for the long-winded post. Just wanted to provide some context so that hopefully someone might have some valuable insight and/or advice. Thanks!