Medicaid Blues

I don't think of myself as a control freak, but the whole Medicaid application process is pushing all of the right buttons and making me crazy. The insurance I have covers 70 or 80% of pregnancy expenses (according to who you ask), but I KNOW I qualify for Medicaid. They should pick up whatever my primary insurance won't, right? And then they should cover Dresden for a little while? Whatever. The system--the whole medical system, actually--is broken.

Check this out:

Dec. 21--Submitted my application and was told to wait 45 days before inquiring.

Feb. 10--Hadn't heard anything, so I call the number I was given. That woman is out of town, so I call the number left on her machine. That woman can't help me, so she sends me to an Alabama Health Network representative, and so on, for five different phone calls. Finally, I find out that my file is pending in Montgomery. So I call that number. Apparently, she'd had my application for three weeks but couldn't process it because the proof of pregnancy I'd submitted wasn't what they needed. You'd think she would have called or sent a letter or something, right? What the hell.

Feb 14--Asked my doctor to fax an approved proof of pregnancy to the number the Montgomery rep gave me. She said a nurse would take care of it and handed the number to one of the ladies who sits at the nurses' station.

Feb. 28--And I still haven't heard anything. The Montgomery rep. told me I need to get this paper to her by March 2. I called her this morning, and she says she hasn't received anything. I called my doctor's office, and after being transferred four times, I left a message for a nurse.

I feel helpless. I hate feeling helpless. I simply can't write a proof of pregnancy myself. I NEED them to do this for me, and I need them to do it today. I need the Montgomery rep to communicate with me when she doesn't have what she needs. I have no car, so I can't just drive around harassing people until they do what they say they'll do.