Dispatches from Blogblivion

I have decided to call the communist state health plan by the evil Mitt Romney and gleeful Democratic legislature, commonly known as RomneyCare, ComneyCare for short, so I don’t have to write out the communist description. But I pregress…

A while back, we were arm-twisted into applying for MassHealth (the official name for ComneyCare) by HFI, Healthcare Financial, at the behest of Morton Hospital, apparently because we could be covered retroactively and they would then collect for the emergency visit with allergy boy early this year. HFI is, as far as I can tell, little more than a law firm/collection agency that specializes in just this kind of thing.

We thought it would be nice to be able to get him medical attention if needed, at least take him for a one year checkup and shots. That appointment is set for Thursday, a month late because of doctor vacation pushing things back.

Anyway, I did the applying through the agent, including affidavits and limited power of attorney and so forth, and sent them a pile of birth certificate copies and such. I thought that included the relevant pay stubs as evidence of income, which I did scan at that time and presumably printed and sent.

I’ve never heard from HFI again.

We received notice of provisional coverage of the kids pretty promptly. Apparently they do this because it take forever to process the applications.

That was the last thing we heard.

On the 12th we received notice from a Taunton office, first we’d ever had anything come from there, indicating we were rejected due to lack of proof of income, if they didn’t hear from us by the 8th.

So this is apparently how they are handling the insane budgetary overrun ComneyCare is creating, by arbitrarily making people unable to obtain the coverage they are legally required to obtain or be fined for not having. Go Massachusetts!

Friday afternoon I faxed that Taunton office the entire original 20 pages of application, affidavits, ID, and pay stubs, a WTF letter, and two subsequent pages of paystubs, supplying phone and e-mail for them to contact me. One secret of being sufficiently broke is that it’s a surprising time sink, where people like to make it hard for you to do anything but deal with crap like this, or where you spend time instead of money because time is what you have.

No word yet. Oh, forgot to mention why I faxed. Besides to get the actual paperwork back in someone’s face ASAP.

The number they supply on the notice is not for the local office, where the fax is. The number they supply lands you in a full voice mailbox – can’t even leave a message – and tells you try again later. Convenient, if they don’t want people to actually get the coverage.

Today I need to contact the doctor’s office and see what they want to do about the appointment Thursday. It’s at least $95 if paying cash (which may as well be the moon). We already owe over $700 from apparently far more visits on grace than I realized last October/November. To the extent it’s up to the doctor, he’d probably say come in anyway and not to worry, because that’s him, so it may be the case. Apparently the shots are paid by the state, so it might be possible simply to go in, get the shot, and leave. But if we’re there, the doctor won’t be able to resist having a good look, so it amounts to the show up and don’t worry about it option. What we can’t do is be referred to any dermatology or allergy specialists without coverage. So it’s good thing we have his condition in such good control, and he’s doing so well at acclimating and outgrowing it so some degree already.

Loads of fun. If McCain had picked Mitt Romney, it would have shown horrible judgment, as well as lack of political savvy. Ultimately they’re all control freaks and would-be tyrants to some degree, but Romney showed naked ambition and elitism over sense more than most.