I don’t go to any great lengths to hide our current financial situation here. Hubby and I have both been unemployed since spring this year. He’s smart enough to have not worked a church so he gets Unemployment Benefits and I get jackshit.
We are an aging couple. We have our health problems and medications are necessary.
Earlier this year I applied for Medicaid and got it. I tried to do it online at first. I failed. Long story but just hang on a second. I did it over the phone and we qualified. I had them send us new cards…we had this before and it seems once you have an account, no matter how many years ago it was last active you never lose it. Ever. Trying to regain access to it may be a daunting experience. Especially when you have no way in hell of getting access to the email you originally signed up with because that place closed.
I digress, let’s march onward. After my success earlier this year, I was supposed to submit proof of income but, to our surprise and no one has explained it yet, hubby suddenly went from the grand $230/wk to the more acceptable $627/wk. I knew I had time. I waited mostly because I knew it wouldn’t make that much of a difference. That and, I dread this shit, seriously there’s just something about paperwork like that which sort of freezes me in place, terrifies me, makes me think it’s ‘too hard’ or whatever and I’ll end up putting it off until the very last second…if I do it at all.
I got my Please Send Us Your Income Form in the mail and the advent of the internet is supposed to make this so much easier! In fact, according the lady I spoke with earlier this year, it is actually supposed to notify me of this, provided me a link for this, and just let me update it, you know, on-the-fly.
Yeah.
BTW, back in The Dark Ages, I filled out a lot of these forms when I worked at the law office. Most of our clientele was on some form of assistance and these things were always coming in. I dreaded it then too. Hated that green and white booklet.
Oh! How I miss it!
Yes, I miss that green and white booklet all laid out in its color coded tables.
I never thought I would even think anything like that. Ever.
It was on legal sized paper, it was folded in half and printed on both sides. It came with a letter; Please fill out and send back by….blah blah blah. You just flipped through it, page by page, filling out the information.
Some brainiac decided to change that format and honestly, it was difficult to make heads or tails out of it so I went to the website! Why not? I finally reclaimed the damn account and I saved the damn password and the letter says I can go there and just click “Change/Renew My Information”. The lady said it would ask me to upload the forms when I sign in.
Great!
That’s not what happened. Try as I did, I could find said link and it did ask me to upload any paperwork.
The website, even though I have an active account with accesshealthct.com made me go through the whole process all over again. Yep. I started at Square One. I sat here inputting our information all over again and scratching my head several times. I was unable to add our Oldest Daughter as a dependent even though she lives here and I take her off my taxes every year. It asked if I was ‘the primary income earner in 2023’.
Ummmmm…..Yeah, I guess.
Hubby was out of work for several years due to his injury. So, even though he was on Worker’s Comp that whole time, technically, I had the biggest ‘income’. I won’t tell you how much because you’ll laugh.
After that it asked about 2024, what our annual income would be, and that’s where everything got sticky.
He worked.
He didn’t work,
He worked.
He didn’t work.
I worked.
I didn’t work.
I can’t keep it straight in my head and I honestly truly won’t have a clue until the end of year income tax shit starts rolling in. This is on the parts that had me looking for my crystal ball along with the later question of ‘do you expect to have health insurance any time this year’.
Ummmm…..
I can hope. But expect? That’s probably too much.
So I did what I imagine most people do at that part–thems that don’t give up anyway–I made my best guesstimate. (It’s easy to see how those people give up, this thing, like the actual paperwork, can make you feel quite stupid as you’re swallowing your pride and holding out your hand with your hat in other asking for some help.)
I added in what he’s getting from Unemployment at that part but, as I went on, it seems I was supposed to put that somewhere else. Maybe. Not really clear. I sat here going ‘huh’ so many times I can’t even begin to put a number on it.
All I can say is I did my best with the website. I got to the end. I pushed submit on my application and I was promptly denied.
Not for being over income or anything like that.
Nope, it actually said we were ‘denied because applicant didn’t apply for health insurance’. It ALSO SAID we ‘should reapply during Open Enrollment starting Nov. 1’.
Go on, relish it a bit. Read it again.
WTF?
What was I doing there all that time as I filled out my eligibility forms so I could get to my actual heath insurance application?
I was stunned and amazed and bit pissed.
I pulled out the paper forms I received in the mail and looked at them wishing for that little green booklet. See, somewhere along the line someone got a ‘cost saving measure’ idea but they didn’t implement it very well.
These pages are printed on both sides and not in any particular order. Wait, the letter part is perfect, all things you need to send or have or whatever. All your rights and that stuff. All nice and neat. The rear pages are a bit jumbled. I spent some time, after realizing they were numbered because that took a bit (I miss that green!) and then trying to put them in order because some overlapped in odd fashions.
It started getting very frustrating as I wondered why anyone would do this. Just print the letter nice and neat. End it. THEN print the damn forms…separate but together…get it? Both parts nice and neat and easy to use.
Unlike in The Dark Ages, I was happy to find a lot of information had been filled in for me. My handwriting is the worst. I hate filling out forms with a pen. Even I can’t read it most of the time. That is why I learned how to type. I just had to make a few corrections, find the space to add the Oldest as a dependent, stuff the printouts from Unemployment in the proper place and then try to shove it all in the #9 envelope they send.
Ah. Somethings never change.
Such fun trying to not rip the crap out of it as you’re gingerly pushing the paperwork inside. Then looking around for some Scotch tape to hold it the flap down.
This used to be Postage Prepaid but no more. I have to find two stamps. Who has a stamp anymore? Now I’m wishing for the Old Time Stamp Machines that used to be so prevalent…along with the weight and fortune card machines. Loved those. I will forage for stamps tomorrow and get this out in the mail hoping it’s filled in correctly or at least satisfactorily.
We’ll find out.
Lisa Beth Darling 