Well, I called my State Representative's office (Todd Hunter) and spoke with a very helpful gentleman named Beck. I explained my situation: being told to go die by the Medicaid office, and expressed my frustration with the system.
You see, if I continue to receive Food Stamps (now called SNAP for some stupid reason) and Medicaid for my son (he has private insurance, but qualified for Medicaid as a back-up and it paid for his speech therapy), then the state will force James (ex-husband) to pay child support. But if I receive that child support, I am ineligible for Medicaid.
So basically, I have to drop the Food Stamps, Medical Assistance for my son, and child support to completely zero out my income so that I won't die of cancer. (Or will at least be given the opportunity to fight for my life.) These are the hoops I have to jump through in order to have a fighting chance.
While I was having a political discussion with my father about this whole mess, I received a call from the local Medicaid office stating that they will call me for a phone interview/application for my Medicaid on 10/10/09 between 9:45 and 10:00am. Now, I'm not sure if Beck is responsible for this timely appointment or not, but I would like to hope that he did make the calls he promised me.
I skipped that part, so let me fill it in. Beck expressed concern at how robotic the local office was about my application and my need for medical care. He mentioned a High Risk Pool insurance for Texans, and offered to make some calls to Medicaid on my behalf to see if he could help speed up the process for me. I must admit when my dad suggested I call the Representative, I figured I would get to leave a voice mail and would receive a form letter in the mail. The fact that Beck gave me personal attention, (and I'm using his name so much because he acted like a human being and not some faceless government agent) expressed concern for my well-being, and assured me that he would make the effort of a few phone calls and some internet research on my behalf gave me some confidence in my situation.
He promised to email me about some insurance options as well.
Now, I did check out the High Risk Pool, but as I'm sure most of you reading already know: my cancer would not be covered for 12 months, as it is a pre-existing condition. Now, if I want to pay premiums for 12 months and wait to get it treated, then they will cover it. But in the meantime, anything related to cancer treatment would be denied.
While writing this, Beck called me back, less than an hour after I put in my initial call to him. He explained that he was working with his Ombudsman in the Health and Human Services office to track down and expedite my application. I thanked him and told him about the call I had received, but he said he would try to get things done even sooner if at all possible.
He also started explaining the High Risk Pool to me, and said that he also found the hurdle of my having a pre-existing condition, but he didn't stop looking. He gave me a link to some non-profit organizations that help with copays and financial assistance, and said he would be checking in on me to keep up to date.
http://www.texashealthoptions.com/cp/disable.html
http://www.txhealthpool.com/Financial%20Resources%20Table%20CURRENT.pdf
Time to go exploring on the internet.
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