My Children's Medicaid is Going to Be Cancelled Again....Because of My Husband's Indiana National Guard Duty

I put that in the title to help the search engines find it.  This is ridiculous.

A quick recap--feel free to skip ahead if you're one of my two regular readers:

We were cancelled the first week of my husband's January 2009 basic training.  This was the first time we'd had any real trouble since my eldest started medicaid in 1996.  The Indiana FSSA decided that my husband must have been undergoing basic training in Oklahoma, while at the same time sneakily continuing his full-time job in Indiana.  Those of you who are acquainted with US geography might be skeptical, but the government was certain that this was what was happening.  No, really, they were.

We were cancelled again the first week of his 2010 summer two-week stint, and again in 2011, first week.  This year we got paperwork but apparently avoided cancellation.  Until now.

My husband had one day of guard duty today, outside of his normal one-weekend-a-month routine.  And that was enough to trigger IT again.

We have a form that has to be filled out by the National Guard in Indianapolis.  This form will have to be mailed to Indy, then mailed back to us, then mailed to the FSSA (no, we're not allowed to cut out the middleman--that might make too much sense), and then go through the all-important several-days-long processing procedure, all before the 29'th.  Yes, we have nine whole days before our children's medicaid is cancelled.

I'm glad that we at least have Tricare now.  We didn't at first.  But we still have to pay 15% of a lot of things.  If a child were hospitalized, that could add up very quickly.  And we like being able to take them to the dentist....

Another form has to be taken to my husband's employer--but--get this--they put the wrong employer on the form.  So another form must be procured, through the mail, and taken, probably by hand at least, which will be quicker, to the employer, and then sent back to the FSSA.  Oh, and don't forget processing.

I must also send them copies of the Tricare cards.  It doesn't matter if I sent them the second week of July.  They want them again.

I've just spend hours on this, filling out paperwork, swearing, making copies, starting a binder, whining, writing state government officials, posting on facebook, and contacting the reporter who expressed an interest last year in knowing if this happened again.



All this after getting an old filling replaced this morning, taking the bill to my parents, and going to my old GP to get started on the medical part of my Social Security appeal.  I had blood drawn at the nearby hospital.  I filled out a lot of paperwork.  I even impressed myself by doing the dollar store portion of our grocery shopping when I had the time.  I also impressed myself by actually finding the dollar store on my first attempt.

Oh, and when I went to the dentist, I found they'd re-paved the road in a new color and posted orange signs everywhere, which confused the heck out of me.  Suddenly my 13yo daughter piped up in a small, discouraged (one might have almost said disgusted) voice.  "And you just missed the dentist."

Fortunately I know that area and was able to find it again.  Kinda sad that I drive like that before they give me nitrous.



And now I've got to go--it's getting late--good night!