Blue Shield, I Wish I Could Quit You

...and not in a good way. See the earlier post on my tale of woe here.

My story only gets worse. I went through all that heartache--months of trying to enroll in a health insurance plan through Covered California--only to be told, when my kid got sick and I called to get my subscriber number, that I haven't paid for my health insurance. DESPITE THE FACT THAT BLUE SHIELD HAS CASHED MY CHECK. They can't find it. They can't find it! We are two weeks in to another ridiculous hellhole of calling and emailing and getting nowhere. In desperation I took to my long-unused Twitter account to see if I could get their attention. It sort of worked (both Covered CA and Blue Shield responded) but I still have no resolution and they are threatening to terminate my coverage and make me start all over again, which would mean I have now gone two full months without health insurance for my family.

By the way, if I pay over the phone, they say it would still take me two weeks to get membership information and go to the doctor. So if my kids are sick, I am screwed either way. I am going to have to pay out of pocket. Even though I have paid for medical insurance.

I have sent a copy of the endorsed, deposited check, as well as a copy of my bank statement showing that it has been cashed, to the Blue Shield Customer Service department. I have absolutely no faith that they will credit me my hard-earned money or acknowledge that they received it, despite this evidence. They have gone suspiciously silent, one of those "don't call us, we'll call you" dealios. It takes 15-20 minutes to get a live human being on the phone every time I call. Have I mentioned that I work? That I have a husband and a family, and a life? That I can't spend hours every week on hold??

I am going to file a formal complaint with the California Department of Insurance. And I am going to get back on the phone, this time to Kaiser, to see if I can get any kind of HMO coverage at this late date. And I'm applying for a new job elsewhere, first because I want to move on, but second because I need some benefits some kind of way and changing jobs may be the only way to get them.

I would really like to just go lie down somewhere.

The Glass is Always Full*

A follow-up to all this health insurance rigmarole:  I discovered Friday that because my employer has been deducting my health insurance premiums through their plan, they deduct them pre-tax. So terminating this overpriced coverage bumped me into a higher tax bracket, which means I have been fighting to get insurance through the marketplace for three months only to find that now that I have done so, it actually puts me in a worse financial position. My take-home pay is higher, but once I pay for my health insurance premiums post-tax, I will actually have less money than had I just left the whole thing alone.

[insert sad trombone music: *womp-womp-WOMP*]

I went home from work Friday night completely defeated. A little angry, but mostly just beaten down, because there is pretty much no hope of me getting a raise at work, since I work at a cash-strapped social services non-profit. Many of the staff here are working multiple jobs to pay their bills. I don’t know anyone who is getting their family’s insurance through the company because it is so cost-prohibitive, and the salary increases we occasionally get do not keep pace with the cost of living.

It is a frustrating position to be in when you believe in the mission of an organization but realize you can’t afford to work there.

So the writing is on the wall. I need to move on. But the 800-dollar question is, to where?

Oh, and by the way, California is running out of water. So there’s also that then. 

But then the world also made this:

Source: attackofthecute.com. Naturally.

So something is going right out there. Right? You think?

* Technically, the glass is not half-empty or half-full. It is always full – half with water, half with air. Didn’t I blow your mind this time? Didn’t I?