When they asked for my dead mother I assumed it was one of the political campaigns. I have already received eight calls from the democratic mayoral candidates campaign. All for a woman who has been gone for two years. I have learned to ask which campaign they are calling from. He simply said he was from 1199 (for those who don't know unions that's the health care workers union). I do take responsibility for still assuming he was calling for a candidate. Looking back I suspect my saying she was no longer on the voter rolls was why he told me to shut up, that he wasn't calling from a voter roll. However, telling me to shut up wasn't exactly a positive comment for either of us. While I did not yell, I got a bit more vocal in my disgust of his calling. Which lead him to call me a bitch and an idiot and hang up on me. (I may be a bitch, but you don't get to call me one!) That lead to calls and research to figure out which candidate he was calling for and a message for the 1199 administration offices, which may have contained a threat of going to the local media if I didn't get a call back. (You call me a bitch, I will become one.) I did get a call back while I was having my CPM session this afternoon. She was apologetic, promised to track down the person who called and to remove my mothers name from their call list. The ironic part is they were calling about lobbying for healthcare reform. Something I do support and my mother would have.
So that was the first of my healthcare issues. The second came as a voice mail from the company supplying the CPM machine wanting to discuss when I was returning it. I guess they are still having problems with my insurance coverage. I left a message with my surgeon's office for their opinion if I needed to start covering the $175 a week while I fight with my insurance.
Which nicely leads to my third healthcare related issue of the day. When I went to get my mail I found a letter from my insurance stating that my rates have been raised by $130 a month, reflecting "the significant increase in healthcare costs in our area." This means I will be spending about $12,000 a year so I can fight about what they will and won't cover.
That's for just me, if I had a spouse and some kids I would have to pay just under $36,000 a year. That's the price of my first co-op! And the insurance industry wants to fine someone who can't afford insurance?! According to the US Census Bureau the median income for a family of four in my state is $72,170 - which means they would have to spend half their annual income on health insurance! Somehow I suspect that families of four who don't have health insurance aren't making the median income. Maybe instead of all this party fighting congress should take a good look at what is in the best interests of the people who actually put them in Washington and deal with this! (That's my op ed for the day)
