Chronic Rants

As I type this sentence I have been on hold for 1 hour 55 minutes.  No, that’s not an exaggeration or some sort of typing mistake.  I have actually been on hold for almost two hours.

I have spent a lot of time on the phone for health stuff over the last few months.  There have been a few minutes at a time with doctors.  There have been a few 20-30 minute calls with my lawyer.  Then there have been long wait times of 10, 20, 60+ minutes to deal with social security, medicaid, and long term disability insurance.  Getting help seems to involve hours and hours on the phone.

In hindsight, I sort of wish I’d kept track of the wait times.  I think it would be interesting to see.  When I tell healthy friends about what I go through, they’re shocked – and I have it easy!  I’m lucky enough to have the patience and skills to deal with this bullshit!  What about the people who don’t have that?

Although, my patience is wearing very, very thin…..

There’s this idea that there’s a ton of free government money just out there for the taking, and lots of immoral people are taking advantage of it.  I’ve heard that more times than I can count.  The reality is that there’s very little government support and even when you’re completely deserving and completely qualified, it’s almost impossible to get the support.

It’s a beautiful autumn day here in New England.  The sky is blue, the trees are yellow & orange & red, the sun is shining, and I’m still in my living room.  A friend and I were going to meet at her office for lunch and eat outside.  We cancelled that picnic because I was still on hold and didn’t want to hang up and miss out on my chance to get legal help to appeal my denial of state medicaid services.  Maybe I can take a short walk after I eventually get off the phone?  But there are more phone calls to make, more help to seek.

I’m thinking of a mouse in a maze looking for cheese, but I think that to make the comparison more accurate, we’d have to add a playful cat to the maze.  That sounds about right.  Because the government and private insurance companies are doing everything they can to avoid giving people the aid that they provide.  I’m just going to keep trying to dodge that cat.

And speaking of cheese, I haven’t even had lunch yet because of the long hold time!  Time to forage for food…..

This entry was posted on Monday, October 22nd, 2012 at 12:53 pm and is filed under Frustration, Healthcare, Limitations, Politics, Rants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.