My daughter and I have health insurance. It is state assisted, but we pay for
it, just not as much as if we made a lot more. Instead of $400 or more per month
we pay about $175 per month for both of us. We have been on this plan for
several years and have never had any issues with it. My daughter has Renal Cell
Carcinoma and Lymphangiomatosis, as well as being very good at growing
hemangiomas. Basically speaking, there is absolutely NO way that she can go
without insurance. I am always very careful in making sure that all monthly
payments are made and often pay for a couple of months at a time. Can't be too
careful, right?
A couple of weeks ago, mid July, I get a notice
from them stating that our insurance is going to be cancelled due to
non-payment. I call as soon as they open the next morning in a panic. I was on
hold for 47 minutes of Kenny G hell before I got through, and after giving him
all my info he said that there had been a "glitch in the system" and that we had
a renewal coming up, and that payments were not recorded for anyone that had
that renewal. I explained that there was absolutely no way my daughter could go
without insurance and he said "Don't worry about it. Just a glitch, it's fine.
We are getting it fixed." so I didn't worry about it. (Mistake number one)
August 1st my daughter went to CVS to get her refills filled. She is told that
her insurance was cancelled. She called me in a panic, I had to leave work and
go pay cash, she can not go without her pills. And expensive pills they are... I
didn't really need to fill my gas tank this week, right? And, of course, it was
a Friday. By the time I got home and tried calling them they were closed and I
couldn't do anything but fume all weekend. So I am all kinds of pissed off, grab
the dogs leash, and off for a good anger burning walk. Get back, grab the mail
on the way in... There's a notice from the insurance company. About how they
have canceled our insurance and that we need to send them $0.00 by the 20th or
we will be without and can reapply in 4 months. Yes, send them NOTHING so we
don't get dropped. Anger, back. No amount of walking is going to get rid of
it.
Bright and early Monday morning I call them. On
hold forever and a day. Finally get through and go through all the info and the
lady says that we were cancelled because of a lack of payment and we did not do
the renewal. I explain that I always pay and I haven't received the renewal.
Then she says that it was because it wasn't sent. And that they didn't calculate
the amount due because it changes when you do the renewal. So I need to get it
paid up and get the renewal done and we're cancelled until that is done. Wait a
minute... I talked to a guy two weeks ago that said it was a glitch and not to
worry about it. I haven't received any renewal, I haven't received any bill I
haven't paid, I haven't gotten any of this! I need to get this fixed! She says
that she's looking at the account and none of it has been sent. But I need to
get it in. At this point I am pretty much wondering when I am going to stroke
out from anger... "So think about this. You are telling me that I have to pay a
bill that you haven't sent, and I have to send you the renewal paperwork that
you have not sent. Does that make ANY sense to you at all????" Her...
pause..."Oh. Shit." Yeah lady, oh shit is right. So then she says I have to go
onto the state dhs website and make a payment, talks me though how to do that.
Okay, I can do that. Then she says I have to use the MNSure website to renew.
Wait, what? She explains that all insurance now has to go through the state run
website. ALL OF IT. Okay, fine, whatever. I'll do all of this as soon as I get
home from work tonight.
Monday evening. Get home, walk the dog, grab
paperwork, sit at the computer. Make payment, no problem. Print off receipt
page, just in case. Then go to the state insurance page. Fuck me silly, this is
stupid. Did you really just have me input the same info 5 times? Good lord.
Okay, keep going, input, input, blech. Get to the end and it directs me back to
the dhs page. And then blank screen, no further info. What. The. Fuck.
Seriously?????? Why did I have to go through all that? I am going to have to
call again in the morning. Dammit!
Tuesday morning, get all set for my now daily
morning routine of being on hold with horrible musak. Okay. Get someone on the
line. Tell them what I was told to do yesterday. Tell them what I did. Tell them
about blank screen and what now? Am informed that she's looking at my account
and that she can see the payment but that it's going to get refunded. What? That
we now qualify for MA so we have to go on that. There is no monthly payment for
MA. I inform her that I am NOT going to go onto MA, I PAY for our insurance. She
says that it doesn't matter, that is what we now have to do. No, I will NOT.
Fine print says that if any medical bills are paid through MA and you die, they
can go after your estate to collect what they paid. I will not have that. She
basically says that it doesn't matter what I want, that is what we have to do. I
again tell her that I am keeping my plan, she says "You can't. You have to go on
the welfare plan. You don't make enough to pay for your insurance." Um bitch,
what have I already been doing??? So then my reply (yeah, very snarky at this
point) "What happened to "If you like your plan, you can keep your plan.?" Her
reply "It doesn't work like that. And you need to call back tomorrow to get your
payment refunded."
So yeah, basically the state is saying that I
have to go on the welfare plan whether I want to or not. I have NO choice in the
matter.
And I need to figure out how much of a raise I
need to give myself to make too much for it so I can go back to the one I had.
Fuck them. Fuck them. Fuck them.
Fuck Obama.
That is all.
obama is a cocksucker!
ReplyDeleteOnly something affiliated with the government could cancel you for not paying the 0.00 bill they didn't send you, to pay for the renewal that they didn't send you either...When is it going to be time to make torches, and sharpen the pitchforks??
ReplyDeleteAbsolute. Fucking. Insanity.
ReplyDeleteSara,
ReplyDeleteCould you claim added income from being self employed? Not that you would actually "make" anything just increase your income "level" to disqualify yourself. You would need to consider tax liability.
Angel: might be time to dust off that idea I gave you and franchise it...
I almost stroked out just reading this.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm rather hardened to the pokes in the eye of bureaucracy and soft tyranny, having been SB owner for 20+ yrs.
-fjord
Oh Good God. Why does this not surprise me? Good Luck with this because you are going to need it.
ReplyDeleteReblogged this on Musings of the Desert Rat.
ReplyDeleteGuess Minnesota is in the Twilight Zone now.
Thats one of my main complaints with Obamacare - opting out is too expensive. Its like opting out of paying your Federal Income Tax, pretty much.
ReplyDeleteI think we've all had the experience of dealing with insurance BS and thinking on the phone 'I'm gonna switch' but after you are in the Federal insurance system, you don't have that option without paying a fortune. And they choose what expenses they will cover across the board (can't be discriminatory, don't you know), so just take it citizen.
My condolences for her troubles, I hope she gets things squared away.
I go to Rural Health for my doctoring they have a sliding scale. I've been going their since i was 18 never had a lick of trouble until Obamacare. Now I have to get a state medical card so I can go back to the same place and pay the same price.
ReplyDeleteFuck Obama
Dave, I asked the lady what the cut off was so I wasn't forced onto the welfare version and she said that they check every years tax returns so if I do anything to fudge it they will find it.
ReplyDeleteYay. Yeah, I'm going to have to figure something out, even if I pay myself more and then "purchase" stuff from the shop to get it back into the til...
They also, for anybody that owns a small business, lowered by a hundred and fifty thousand the cut off to call yourself a small business (and exempt from big business bullshit) and raised the minimum wage. And that is gross income, not actual profit. Used to be 650K and now it's 500K. Even if you only actually profit maybe 10K a year after expenses.
Fuck Obama.
I'm just wondering how much longer this is going to go on before law-abiding red state wage earners start taking trophies regardless of the consequences.
ReplyDeleteKenny G? I hate that cocksucker.
ReplyDeleteThe only reason I've stayed at a job I hate for 22 years is for the insurance. My ex had Hep C and needed the insurance for prescriptions and doctor's visits.
Lisa has severe vision problems, back problems and fibromyalgia. She takes 6 prescribed medications a day.
Thanks, Sara. You just condemned me to another 20 years of work. No way am I putting my wife through that shit.
This is why I flat REFUSE to have ANYTHING to do with government that isn't forced on me at gunpoint. Want to fix this? Boycott , DISOBEY , STOP USEING THE SYSTEM, STOP PAYING FOR YOUR OWN SLAVERY. If you take the yoke of slavery (welfare) then YOU have made the choice. When I got cancer; TWICE; I chose to refuse to take ONE penny from the subhuman federal dog vomit, I'd rather die on my feet than beg those putrid, cat turd eating lice for my life. But that's just me---Ray
ReplyDeleteYeah, that sounds fucking awesome Ray, much better to let my child die of cancer than figure out a way around their fucked up system. So much better. Yeah, this mom will get right the fuck on that. Asshole.
ReplyDelete(As in, did you even read it or just look for a reason to rant unrelated?)
Oops, adding... ANY AND ALL insurance is through the state.
ReplyDeleteAgain, you want to die, you go for it. I am NOT letting my child go without treatment.
Also, same child. Four years old. Had tumors on her tonsils, those needed to be removed. I had no insurance at all at the time. I paid off the doctors, the hospital, the anesthesia, all of it. She was 15 years old when I sent in the last of the money. Just one of her visits now is almost double that bill.
The Land of The Free...The Home of The Brave...
ReplyDeleteHmm. Just WHERE have I heard those words before?! Every time I try to remember, I seem to see a news story, or read a blog or read a comment that puts those words into a surrealistic fog. We are at, or rapidly approaching NOT having the freedom to choose ANYTHING anymore, including our health care, our doctors and pharmacist and what drugs we can and do not want to take. Soon, other plans, such as the upcoming 401k version of Obamacare where people's hard-earned retirement accounts will be grabbed up and meted back out at, I'm pretty sure, THREE PERCENT. Of course, as the first picture up there shows, we cannot even choose our own CUPCAKES. (I had a teacher once who had that surrealistic, demonic scowl on her face all the time. I'm pretty sure we put superglue on her chair once. Or maybe it was rubber cement).
It isn't just healthcare or choosing doctors. Unfortunately, the new Obamacare laws are running good medical staff out of their practices. My own doctor decided to retire because of Obamacare. So by defect, no I CAN'T choose my own doctor. During a recent urgent care visit for an injury, a doctor, who otherwise did not even know me, couldn't help but talk about meetings the hospital was having to discuss all the changes and how difficult it will make things for the medical staff as well.
One final thought from reading the infuriating experiences this person shared. She mentioned Muzak. I worked in an office during the late '70s and early '80s that had Muzak. It drove me insane. I wanted to find that infernal machine, rip it out, smash it and blast some Led Zeppelin.
So I will say this. Obamacare sucks EXPONENTIALLY MORE than Muzak.
I like Rays comment.
ReplyDeleteRay, you're a fucking idiot.
ReplyDeleteA mother's love surpasses everything in life. I can guarantee you that if Sara could take her daughter's pain and problems upon herself, she would.
Rays a twit has been all his life and is pissed off at the world because of it..
ReplyDelete