Today was Day 34 of the 2017 Fall pollen season. I am no longer certain if the severe sinus pain I am feeling is a sinus infection or simply the result of 34 days in a row with pollen counts that are higher than my body can tolerate.
I spent some time on the phone today, on hold, in an attempt to get the vision insurance company to send me a vision insurance card. The photo above, of a hand that is holding an iPhone, felt like a good visual metaphor for being on hold. “Hold the phone.”
Today was Day 23 of the 2017 Fall pollen season. I am feeling very “stuck”. There is nothing I can do to feel better until the pollen count goes down to 6 or lower (and stays there for at least a week straight). I’m trying to move ahead and improve my health, but am being dragged backwards by forces beyond my control.
In May of this year, my health insurance subsidy magically disappeared. A bill arrived in which the premium had gone up so much that there was no way we’d be able to pay it. Long story short, I ended up having to pick a new plan.
At the time, I had a Silver plan. The subsidy helped me pay for it and my premiums were low enough to make it possible for me to afford health insurance coverage. My husband and I are both disabled, and my attempt to get Social Security Disability was denied – so I can’t get Medicare. I’m stuck with individual health insurance from a private company.
Assembly Member Anthony Rendon,
Please stop blocking SB 562 – the bill that could enable Californians to have access to single payer health care. It is extremely important, now more than ever, that the State of California take steps to protect people’s access to health care.
I’m going to greatly summarize what just happened. A little while ago, my husband got a bill from my health insurance company. For some unknown reasons, my premium went up DRAMATICALLY because my subsidy had been taken away from me. He later explained that when he got this bill, he was afraid that he would have to get (another) job.
Let me put that into context. My husband is legally blind and gets Medicare as a result. He has optic nerve atrophy, which cannot be cured. He has tried, in the past, from time to time, to get a “regular job” – but is greatly limited by what kind of job he can do because of his vision. In addition, he already has a job doing freelance writing and audio production.
Continue Reading “Freaking Out Over My Health Insurance Subsidy”
Today, the pollen count was 7.7. It is just a little bit higher than yesterday’s pollen count. Somehow, I have unintentionally managed to force myself to be productive and get paid writing work done even while I’m sick and experiencing “brain fog”.
Continue Reading “Spring Pollen Season – Day Seventy-Eight”
Representative Jason Chaffetz (Republican – Utah) made the following comment when he was trying to defend the horrible health care plan that the GOP released. They want to replace “Obamacare” with their plan, which will, in short, cause a whole lot of harm to poor people – especially poor people who have chronic or serious illnesses.
Here is what Representative Jason Chaffetz said:
“Well, we’re getting rid of the individual mandate. We’re getting rid of those things that people said they don’t want. Americans have choices, and they’ve got to make a choice. So rather than getting that new iPhone that they just love and want to go spend hundreds of dollars on that, maybe they should invest in their own health care.”
Continue Reading “Jason Chaffetz Thinks Poor People Shouldn’t Have iPhones”
Dear online followers,
I’m not in a good place right now.
I got sick on Christmas due to overload of allergens, and haven’t managed to recover from that yet. The upcoming spring pollen season is probably going to start in the next couple of weeks, and it will affect me very negatively. (It has for the past two years.)
Right now, the news is all about Congress voting to repeal the Affordable Care Act. The way I’m able to afford health insurance right now is because I get a subsidy from the Affordable Care Act to help pay for my monthly health insurance premiums. This allows me to afford to see my rheumatologist (about every three months or so).
It’s been more than a month since I had my third, and final, disability hearing. I understand that disability judges aren’t known for their speedy decision making abilities, and that there were four holidays between when I had the hearing and today (Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve).
I get it. I’m trying to be patient.
I’m having trouble waiting for an indefinite amount of time for an answer that will either make my life a bit easier – or that will make it significantly harder to struggle through. I can’t move on until I know which way things will go, and I refuse to let my hopes go up for fear of them crashing to the floor and shattering into a thousand pieces when the mail finally arrives.
In October of 2015, I stopped qualifying for Medicaid. (Medi-Cal in California).
Nobody bothered to let me know about this obviously important change.
I ended up seeing a doctor, to set up as a new patient, while uninsured.
Of course, there was no way for me to know that I was uninsured.
Continue Reading “For Those Who Think Being Poor Makes for an Easy Life”
