I'm getting really ticked about health insurance. When Lizbeth was born, she had a heart murmur from three very small holes in her heart. The doctors said not to worry about it, that there was no possible treatment, and that the holes would most likely go away on their own as she grew. Well, when we moved to Utah and applied for health insurance, she was denied by two companies. However, we managed to get her covered under Utah's CHIP program because we didn't make too much money to qualify.
Then she had her 18-month checkup (a bit late), once we had her health insurance. And there was no heart murmur. Three different doctors since then have agreed. No heart murmur. So what the doctors told us in the first place was right; the issue cleared up on its own.
In January, I started working more hours and got a raise. With that, plus the money we make from freelancing for TOKYOPOP, we're close to the upper limit of eligibility for CHIP. So it would be best if we could get Lizbeth covered under our family plan. So we applied, and this time they didn't reject her. Here's what they offered us:
Our per-person deductible would increase from $1000 to $2500.
Our family deductible would increase from $2500 to $5000.
Our prescriptions deductible would increase from $500 to $1000 (I'm not sure if that is per person or per family).
The out-of-pocket maximum (beyond the deductible they still only cover 70%)--they didn't tell me how much it would increase, but I assume proportionally.
And our monthly premium would increase from $422 to $509.
So we'd be paying $6100 per year for health insurance that wouldn't actually help us unless we paid at least an extra $2500 and possibly another $5000. So we'd pay $11,000 before we see one cent of insurance claim help.
All because of something the doctors swore to us was not a problem and that we shouldn't worry about, and that is in fact completely gone.
Meanwhile, CHIP has to go through a renewal approval process every year. Except they didn't tell us when this was until it had already passed. But there was a one-month grace period we were still within. But then they didn't tell me everything they needed. I send them everything they ask for, and they send a letter in the mail two weeks later saying "Oh, we also need THIS, and now you're outside the grace period so you need to reapply." So I did, and two weeks later they sent a letter saying we were denied because we owe the CHIP program $40. (They couldn't tell me that last time??) That was on Thursday, and they're closed on Fridays. So I got up at 7 AM this morning to call them and they said we owed them $25, that we paid only $50 of our last $75 bill. (I know $25 is not $40 but apparently they don't...okay, that's not fair; the $40 probably includes a $15 late fee, but why they didn't mention that on the phone today...) I told them I have a receipt for $75 I paid in May. They looked some more in their computers and said one of two computer systems says we paid $50 and the other says we paid $75. And they will have to figure out what's up and then call me back. They said they'd probably call me back today. I'm still waiting.
Meanwhile I asked our SelectHealth broker if they would offer us a plan with the same deductible we currently have but with an even higher premium. He said no, they can't do that. And we have until October 17th to accept their current offer. My optimism that we can arrange everything with CHIP before then is not high, since they keep telling me (after two weeks) one more thing they need me to send them. (They did that when we applied last year too.)
And we had a bunch of bills come out of nowhere in the last couple of weeks that wiped out 75% of our checking account.
So I'm grumpy.