I assumed that because I am considered a single adult, as in not married, that I had a very good chance of being qualified for Medicaid, especially being pregnant and unemployed. Apparently not. I also assumed that we would be considered a family of 4, with the baby included. Wrong again.
When you apply for Medicaid, they have to do an interview either in person or by phone. You also have to give them a plethora of financial proof, birth certificates for children, etc. Usually, when you apply for pregnancy medical, or any kind of pregnancy assistance, they expedite your application and say that they will get back to you in about 15 days for an interview as opposed to a month or more. I actually jumped the gun and applied for Medicaid at the end of July, on the 27th as soon as I had a positive home test.
I turned in all my paperwork early and waited for my phone interview. When my caseworker called on the 10th of August, he started going through the interview questions and found that he didn't have my paperwork. He decided to just ask me questions about the paperwork and enter the information in manually. I didn't even get a full interview. After about 2 minutes he got to the income question and he stopped in his tracks and said to me, "Oh no. You don't qualify." That was it. End of interview. I was caught off guard and my emotions got the better of me. I told him that I didn't understand and he just apologized and ended the phone call.
I immediately got on the computer and researched being denied Medicaid. I found that CHIP, the children's state insurance, had a perinatal program. I immediately applied. I submitted my application online and waited for some kind of confirmation as it said they would contact me by email with further instruction. About a week later, I got a call from the Texas Star program saying I needed to pick out my insurance plan. My INSURANCE PLAN! I spent 15 or 20 minutes on the phone going through all the available plans and made my decision. I told the woman that I was confused because she kept saying Medicaid and I explained to her that I was told that I didn't qualify. She said that Medicaid usually automatically passed their denied applications over to CHIP. So it had to be for CHIP. She also said that she hadn't gotten the full OK from CHIP or Medicaid or whoever, but that they have you pick out a plan early so that when you do get officially accepted, you can immediately start your insurance plan. YESSS!
I waited to hear from CHIP. And waited. I hadn't seen a doctor yet, and I was really anxious to get things started. Also, a mini tragedy in the income department was unraveling. I won't go into detail this time, but our income got chopped almost in half. I checked the CHIP website every day for any kind of news. I finally got an email on September 6 saying they needed info and a letter would be sent. On the 12th I called their office to say I hadn't received a letter so I did not know what documents they required. I also told him that our income had changed significantly since the day I applied. He said that he wasn't sure as he didn't have the list in front of him, but a letter would be coming with sticker labels to be put on every document and I could fax and then mail them in. On the 14th I went ahead and faxed what documents I thought they needed, assuming they would need the same things as Medicaid. On September 15 I still hadn't received any letter, but I got an email saying "We received the information you sent us. If we need more information from you or if we make a decision on your application, we will send you an email. This could take about one week." SO I got an email on the 19th to check the website because they had made their decision. DENIED!!
I called their phone line the next day (Monday) and asked why I was being denied since according to their website, I was under the income requirements. He told me that according to my application, we had made too much money. I pointed out that the bank statements and letters of earning clearly did not match what I had put on the application over a MONTH ago. So then he said I got denied because I didn't have the right proof of income. I had to explain to him that NO ONE told me exactly the things I needed and I sent what I thought was best. He had me download a form specific for people who are self employed and said that that was the correct document they needed. He also said that I could submit last year's tax return. He reassured me that if I sent in these documents, they would automatically reopen my case.
Great. I put together a whole new packet of info, along with an updated bank statement which had shown our monthly income go down even more as well as everything I was told to include. I wrote my case number on every page two inches tall in black marker so they knew it was me. I faxed it that day.
I haven't heard a peep from them since.
I was out of options. We made too much to qualify for assisstance, but not enough to pay for anything out of pocket.
Then, Seth and I got food poisoning.
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