Hello all my faithful readers. Where has the time gone. I know. It’s been a whirlwind dealing with the government. I’m sure many of you know what I’m talking about without having to explain things.
For me, it started 7-8 years ago when I got injured on the job. I still deal with the after effects from that incident. Getting the help I needed, even after paying into the system for decades, was like pulling teeth that just didn’t want to come out. I’m writing about Worker’s Compensation, an insurance program here in the U.S. that workers pay into with every paycheck in the event of an on the job injury. I thought it would be straight forward. I got injured on the job, I had documentation galore supporting the injury and subsequent claim, and yet, I had to hire a lawyer to force them to pay up. We all know all the jokes about lawyers. Let me tell you. Mine are worth it.
Then, my domestic partner was diagnosed with a fatal disease and I became her full-time caregiver. This was almost immediately after I retired from my career job to write near full-time. I had to put that all on hold. She needs constant care and supervision. While I should have been able to write in the infrequent slow hours, my emotional state shut down my creativity and I was unable to tell a tale suitable for my next book. My headaches got worse, and I needed my neurologist to prescribe something to keep me off the OTC analgesics that can damage the liver or kidneys.
So far, I dealt with things as required. I refitted the house to make it invalid and wheelchair friendly, completed a project we talked about for years, and a number of other things, all to improve her quality of life. In the midst of these projects I could deal with, I had little idea of what to do with getting her Medicaid services. Medicaid is another type of insurance workers pay into to give needed support to those who become disabled or are unable to directly care for themselves. What a quagmire that is, culminating in another whirlwind dealing with the government.
Calls unreturned
Then in mid-February, I heard a tidbit from someone that led me on a new path of investigation. From that I learned the name and phone number of our caseworker. Naturally, I called but had to leave a voicemail message. I never got a call back, nor did I get a call back after nine more messages. WTF? I took a new tack. I called the main government number and eventually navigated the various auto-attendant prompts to get to the correct department. After explaining why I was calling, I found out that our case had been reassigned to a new caseworker. Grrrr!!!!
I started calling that number and lo and behold, I left four voicemail messages over three days without getting a response. Here we go again. I called the main number again, navigating the various auto-attendant prompts and got back to the department level and asked to speak to a supervisor. “Sorry, I can’t do that, but I will send an email message to both the caseworker and their supervisor. They’ll call you back no later than tomorrow.”
For most of the past two months, I’ve spend hours and hours trying to find out how lift the restrictions Medicaid placed on her claim. They accepted and issued her a Medicaid account back in September, but we were unable to use it. All we were told it was unactivated and that it should be resolved in the weeks to come. Needless to say, weeks turned into months, and my partner and I were getting increasingly frustrated. Calls to the agencies we hired didn’t give us the answers we were looking for.
Shaking my head, the whirlwind dealing with the government continued. Did I get a call back the next day? You guessed it, no. But I did get one the following day. Lordy lordy, I was told the hold was lifted and she had her full Medicaid benefits. Whoopee.
But that’s not the end of it. Did you guess?
A whole new level of anguish
Oh no. Now, there’s a new pandora’s box open of stuff I need to accomplish to finish her transition to full Medicaid. God help me. Will this be worth it? Someone, please tell me ‘Yes.’ At least she can now hire help to give me some needed time off.
Stay tuned. In the meantime, I am working with one of my beta readers to write a synopsis of a short prequel in the hopes I can restart my creativity and begin writing a new once I get things settled down with Medicaid. Wish me luck.
In the meantime, take a look at my website to see if you’re interested in any of my books.
Richard Verry, Writer