I don't make the rules

[Slave to the Phone]

AND I'm not going to risk my job for you.

Why do people seem to think that we would be willing to lose our job and possibly risk fines and jail for some random stranger? I know, I know, they don't care about us, they only care about getting what they want when they want it.

Today is the last day of the year and this week has been insane. Everyone has suddenly realized that if they don't have health insurance in 2015, they will get fined if they file taxes. They could lose their refund and their earned income credit as well as running up debt with the IRS who everyone knows are not nice about that.

So, they have been lining up for hours to apply for state issued health care. Its called AHCCCS here. Of course, there are requirements and paperwork involved. If you are over income, you don't get it. I'm not going to fudge the numbers for anyone. Don't bother yelling at me over this, all I will do is tell you that welfare fraud is a federal offense. I'm sorry that the courts have ordered you to get health insurance for your child that lives with mom. If the child doesn't live with you, you don't get it for the child.

I don't make the rules. I can't change the rules. I'm not going to break the rules.

(And I can't wait until after they file their taxes and then get fined because they weren't insured for the whole year and then come back in to yell at us for not fixing that.)

On the bright side...Tank has quit smoking. Actually, that means that he has quit buying cigarettes so I'm the one he comes to when he's really hurting. This means that Tank has NO patience with people yelling at his case workers AND that Tank is especially protective of me because if I have to leave early, I'll take my cigarettes with me.

[Teefies2]

On a similar vein ...

It's New Year's Eve. So lots of people are buying alcohol. Listen, I don't care if you drink AS LONG AS you are legal to buy it and can PROVE it!

I had a guy go ballistic on me because I wouldn't sell him a bottle of wine without ID. Yes, he looked over 21, but no he didn't look over 40. It's NYE - there are cops everywhere and stings in progress. So, yeah, you gotta show me your ID. What's that? You don't have it? (I wanted to say ... and you drove here?????) Yes I understand that you're over 21, but you still have to prove it to buy that bottle.

He storms out screaming "It's just a bottle of wine!!!" Yes, that's true. It's *just* a bottle of wine ....... to you. To me, it's the loss of my job and possible jail time, so meh :-P

[WishfulSpirit]

Our medicaid got cut off in August because of my new job. We applied for new insurance through our state's "connect for coverage" website on September 1st. Our new insurance was approved on December 23rd.

The website was broken, everyone on the phone told us something different, I went to the office multiple times and was told to go away because they couldn't do anything. My husband was without his medication for 5 FREAKING MONTHS because of this. As a result his condition has deteriorated. He now needs breathing support at night because the geniuses at the State of <My State> decided to go with programmers who couldn't tell HTML from a Ham and Cheese Sandwich.

Even if you TRY to apply early, it doesn't always work. Not that that excuses your SC's, I can only hope it takes your state as long to pull their heads out of their backsides as it did for us and they DO get the fine for waiting until the last minute.

[Slave to the Phone]

When I started this thread, I was thinking about all of the people who get yelled at because they insist on following the rules and seeing ID. Its just a pack of smokes or a bottle of wine for the SC, its a job and/or fines/jail for the clerk.

WishfulSpirit I am so sorry that happened to you. That is horrible. I will tell you that had you been sitting in front of my desk, were polite and had the proper paperwork, I would have moved heaven and hell for you. Sometimes I have more power on the phone than my customers. I also know different places to call than my customers do. Your case is totally different than the SC's I was talking about.

They were the ones who choose to wait until the last minute without realizing that they had to have had coverage all year to avoid the fines.

[WishfulSpirit]

Aww thanks Slave_to_the_Phone. To be fair the case workers did try, they tried a lot of things, but there just wasn't a whole lot they could do with the website as buggy as it was. We do have insurance now (which I'll lose and have to go through all this again if I get even the slightest raise) but meh. It's done. Your SC's may never have had to deal with government-funded programs before. In the US at least, it such programs take a LONG time (long time as in "we're being lapped by snails and that glacier is gaining on us") to do anything. You HAVE to start early. They probably WILL get the fines, so comfort yourself with that.

[skeptic53]

There are usually ways to get medication free or low cost in time of need. If you do lose insurance, check with your provider and/or the pharmacy. Most drug companies will provide medication if you are willing to fill out a pile of forms proving need. Most counties have subsidized clinics (often with long waits for appointments) that have access to free or low-cost medication. Apologies if you already tried all this. There are some medicines that have no programs for folks in need. Sometimes a different, but similar, medicine is available more cheaply as a generic. Worth asking.

Best of luck.

[Seshat]

WishfulSpirit:

Australia also has programs which are a nightmare to actually get. We've finally managed to find some people who have the connections to get things done, and some things we've been trying to get for years (even decades) are finally happening!


My point is simply: I feel your pain, and you have my sympathy.

[Shyla]

I feel really bad for people really caught in a mess. I had a problem with Medicare solved only by contacting my congressman. Without my meds for 5 months I would be dead.

[Slave to the Phone]

For all of you who are doing the right thing, I wish I could help. Our system actually works pretty well. I can approve someone right away as long as I can verify certain things. The requirements are much stricter for food stamps or cash, but for AHCCCS its pretty simple. You can even do it online. If you don't have your paystubs and your employer doesn't report through the normal chanels, I can call your employer and get verbal conformation. We get a lot of information from other government hubs, so I probably won't need to see your social security card or driver's license.

If the system glitches and I need documentation, I put notes in the system and tell you what is needed. As long as you show up with the documentation within 10 days, if you are not over income, you will get approved and your enrollment will start at the first day of the month when your application was submitted.

If you tell me you paid for scripts 3 months ago, I can get you paid for those as well.

I'm totally not complaining about people who play by the rules and need help. I'll do my very best and if I can't make it work, I'll get my supervisor involved. I'll call the help desk and make them fix it.

However, if you are a rude entitled jerk who didn't bother to do anything until you realized that your tax refund might be taken away because you couldn't be bothered to spend one day dealing with the problem, I really don't have a lot of sympathy. I'll do what I have to and I will tell you what you need to do going forward. I can't back date your application and even if I could, I wouldn't. I won't sign my name to falsehoods. I'm not going to jail for anyone.