Health Care Scare

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Okay, so this image has nothing to do with this post, but when I typed "prescription" into my favorite flickr search engine, this cartoon came up. And I laughed. Because zombies are funny.

Anyway, on to the story. We've been on Medicaid on and off throughout our marriage.

(I realize that Medicaid isn't a perfect system, and I really don't want to go into that right now. Maybe I'll post my thoughts on that can of worms later, but today...politics aren't the point.)

Here's one of the stinky things about Medicaid: paperwork. Lots and lots of paperwork. We sent in our most recent paperwork a couple weeks ago, but a blip in the system got our coverage terminated. That sounds like a big deal, but it's really not. It's happened before, and we just have to call in and get things straightened out.

So Isaac made the straightening-out phone call this morning while I was sleeping in. Then he woke me up, all upset, because the phone lady told him that we didn't qualify anymore. THAT is a big deal. Between Isaac and me, our prescriptions alone cost upwards of $600 a month.

Yeah, I know.

I don't know if it was because I was still half-asleep, or if something was just whispering to me that everything was going to be okay, but I didn't panic. In fact, I went back to sleep.

Isaac woke me up again later with the news that he'd called the Medicaid office again (to see what we needed to change so we could qualify), and the new, lovely phone lady told him that our paperwork hadn't been processed correctly, and that we do qualify. Problem solved.

I guess this is where some people would get angry. I'm not, though. I know that the system has problems (again, not really gonna go there right now), but most of the people I've worked with in the system haven't been incompetent--they've been helpful and nice. And they've been perfectly willing to help us figure things out.

So really, I'm just grateful to have health coverage at all.