There have been a lot of conversations this year about the
financial model that AmeriCorps VISTA uses to pay its members. Currently, the stipend
for the year is set at 105% of the poverty line of the county that the member
is serving in. For me, that means I can expect to receive around $11,400 for
the year, or $442 every two weeks. The logic behind this is that we can have
(in at least a small way) a shared experience with those living in the
communities we serve. We intensively plan out budgets, enroll in the
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), seek out public transportation,
and look for cheap housing. If anything, my experience has informed me that those living
in poverty are actually the best at using financial resources, because they
have so little to work with in many cases. I recognize the limitations of this
model in its inability to account for factors such as family size and support,
transportation, personal, physical and emotional health, education, etc. which
is why I say a shared experience, 'in at least a small way'. Many AmeriCorps
members elect to go through application processes for benefit programs such as
SNAP, and recently the Healthcare Marketplace.
This year I turned 26. The only birthday milestone that you
do not look forward to because you officially get the boot from your parents’
health care plan. As an AmeriCorps member in North Carolina, I fall in this
health care limbo referred to as “the gap.” Try to follow me here because it
gets a little complicated. I exist in an income level with my stipend that is
too low to qualify for monthly federal tax credits to help me pay for the most
basic health care plan. However, because North Carolina as a state did not
expand Medicaid, this same income level (105% of the poverty line in Forsyth
County), was too high to qualify me for Medicaid. The consolation prize? An
exemption that would prevent me from being penalized on my taxes for not having
health care.
Fortunately, being a second term AmeriCorps member I had
earned my educational award of $5645 to be used towards my existing student
loans. Because the education award is a taxable source of income, using it
entirely this year, bumps me up into the next income bracket, qualifying me for
tax credits and an affordable health care plan. Fantastic right? Here’s the
drawback: the education award is a taxable source of income that taxes have not
been taken out of, so I will end up owing several hundred dollars for using it
all this year in addition to state taxes I will owe, because they are not taken
out of our weekly paychecks. Many AmeriCorps members choose to use their
education awards slowly over time to pay a minimum in taxes on them. I had to
essentially do a cost benefit analysis. Not having health care was not an
option. Purchasing my own plan would have cost me $200 per month, but using my
education award would result in $300-400 in taxes once. Easy choice, but I’m
still forking over a couple hundred dollars, which for someone making $11,400 a
year, is challenging.
AmeriCorps offers its members a $6600 allowance per year to
be used on approved health care costs, but you have to a have plan first. This
is not a critique of AmeriCorps or its policies. This is using myself as a
personal example to demonstrate challenges that low income individuals face to
providing basic care for themselves and their families. I had the luxury of
choosing to use my education award to ensure that I make enough to qualify for
tax credits and an affordable health care plan. There are millions of families and
individuals that do not have this luxury. The Affordable Care Act has provided
healthcare to millions in this country for the first time. It has withstood
many challenges to its constitutionality, and that should be (and has been)
celebrated. But cracks have appeared that allowed states to choose whether to
expand Medicaid and in over half of the states, that choice was no. However you
feel about state’s rights, the fact is that because of North Carolina’s
decision not to expand Medicaid millions of individuals and families still do
not have health care. Progress is never content and we need to continue to find
these gaps and close them.
