My son's Medicaid got cut off over a paperwork issue. Problem is they forgot to notify me. So he gets severe croup, I take him to the hospital, he's there for two days, and all the while I'm thinking "Thank goodness for Medicaid." Only he didn't have medicaid, so now I have six grand in medical bills. Might as well be six million as far as I'm concerned.
They tell me that I can reapply and they *might* apply coverage retroactively to cover the hospital stay. So I start the reapplication process and they drag it out for so long, that now the medical bills are going to collections, even though I've called and pleaded with them several times to hold off because I *think* Medicaid is going to cover it, eventually.
Let me say that I find applying for public assistance to be the most degrading process. I have to send in every personal document I can think of--birth certificates, tax papers, divorce decree, bank statements, child support info, you name it.
And at every step of the way I encounter the attitude/assumption that I am trying to "game" the system. For instance they ask me if I have cash on hand, I say no, then laugh a little and say "Well the boys have a piggy bank with like twenty bucks in change." The interviewer says very slowly and patiently, "Well. That would be cash on hand." For pete's sake.
So I manage to find the time off work to go into their office to give them all the paperwork they need (oh, and of course the office is only open 8:30 to 4:30 so how on earth are working people supposed to make it in there?) and then a couple of weeks go by and I get a letter saying that they need MORE papers...I don't have the time for this.
So this afternoon I checked the mail hoping that I'd finally get a notice that I'd been approved for food stamps, which I'm also applying for...but no, just a notice that they need my birth certificate, which they had specifically told me before they would NOT need...and I got another collection notice, this one for $1200 for the stupid doc who mis-diagnosed my son with pneumonia, which of course meant unnecessary shots and blood draws...
And just to top it all off, I got a notice that my credit card is upping my interest rate "because of market conditions, and to ensure profitability." It's going up by 7 percent, NEXT FREAKING MONTH. That's the credit card that always had such a great rate, that I put my car on, and the repairs I did so that I could sell my house.
Next month I'm moving in with family, which I've been looking forward as my opportunity to finally get ahead. Only the way things are going, I won't be able to get ahead for a long time, even living rent-free--I'm just going to be catching up.
They tell me that I can reapply and they *might* apply coverage retroactively to cover the hospital stay. So I start the reapplication process and they drag it out for so long, that now the medical bills are going to collections, even though I've called and pleaded with them several times to hold off because I *think* Medicaid is going to cover it, eventually.
Let me say that I find applying for public assistance to be the most degrading process. I have to send in every personal document I can think of--birth certificates, tax papers, divorce decree, bank statements, child support info, you name it.
And at every step of the way I encounter the attitude/assumption that I am trying to "game" the system. For instance they ask me if I have cash on hand, I say no, then laugh a little and say "Well the boys have a piggy bank with like twenty bucks in change." The interviewer says very slowly and patiently, "Well. That would be cash on hand." For pete's sake.
So I manage to find the time off work to go into their office to give them all the paperwork they need (oh, and of course the office is only open 8:30 to 4:30 so how on earth are working people supposed to make it in there?) and then a couple of weeks go by and I get a letter saying that they need MORE papers...I don't have the time for this.
So this afternoon I checked the mail hoping that I'd finally get a notice that I'd been approved for food stamps, which I'm also applying for...but no, just a notice that they need my birth certificate, which they had specifically told me before they would NOT need...and I got another collection notice, this one for $1200 for the stupid doc who mis-diagnosed my son with pneumonia, which of course meant unnecessary shots and blood draws...
And just to top it all off, I got a notice that my credit card is upping my interest rate "because of market conditions, and to ensure profitability." It's going up by 7 percent, NEXT FREAKING MONTH. That's the credit card that always had such a great rate, that I put my car on, and the repairs I did so that I could sell my house.
Next month I'm moving in with family, which I've been looking forward as my opportunity to finally get ahead. Only the way things are going, I won't be able to get ahead for a long time, even living rent-free--I'm just going to be catching up.
) for $5 for her field trip at school because I don't have the money and telling my 4 year old that she can't have those donuts because I don't have any money.
and say that I have no computer and can't afford to print them for $.10 a page at the library.
: It's a beautiful thing ey?
I know it's hard, really and truly I do. But just remember that there are things to be grateful for each and every single day even if it's just that it's lunchtime and your kids are still alive and you aren't cleaning up blood.
