So today was supposed to be the day that I got my swank, fancy & hip new hair do. Yup, you read that right, “supposed to“. But I’m certainly not at the salon and I won’t be heading that way anytime soon. (ok, I’ll be there friday with GM, but her weekly wash, curl & set is not really about me, now is it?)
The culprit behind my cancelled appointment is an old villain that often rears its head at the worst of times: Money. As in, I don’t have any to spare for a new do.
This is the first real month of life with one income & two households (the prologue Shakespeare never wrote). It is also a week where I have been ever so horribly shafted by many financial issues.
Issue #1: My insurance sucks ass. I doubt I am alone in that sentiment. I wonder if anybody ever thinks their insurance is the bees knees. But mine is being especially dicktastic. You see last November I had a laparoscopy. This was at the suggestion from my RE as, at that point, we were thinking I had some tube blockage. I was assured that any variation of the word “fertility” would not be submitted on paperwork to the insurance. I was told that they (they meaning the RE’s office) knew just how to handle billing issues. They called my insurance well in advance of the surgery to verify that I wold be covered. We were told that it would be covered & to proceed with everything.
So I have the surgery, turns out I wasn’t really blocked- just needed a little cleaning up (PHEW!) and I figured that was the end of things.
Ha! In December I got one of those “this is not a bill” explanation of benefits from my insurance company. It showed the actual price of the surgery & next to it it showed what the insurance had gotten it re-priced as. A huge difference. I was thrilled to have insurance.
Then, in February, I got a letter that basically said that the insurance company had reevaluated my surgery & they have decided NOT to cover it. Any of it. And suddenly I am responsible for over $12,000.
HOLY MOTHER FUCKTARDILIATIONINSANITY!
Since then it has been a battle. The hospital has been, considering, pretty decent about everything. We set up a payment plan (basically let’s hope that I have twins as I do have to give my first born to the hospital billing department & I would so like to walk away from this with at least one baby to show for it.) So each month, as I sell a little bit of my kidney to the hospital, I have been having ninja wars with the insurance company.
Luckily I have a a Mother who is a contract negotiator (for reals!) and she is pretty kick ass with the faxes & letters with the big fancy words. Everything was slowly churning along. & then Monday I got the recording on my voice mail:
“Hello Mrs._______. I am calling to let you know that your grace period for payment has officially expired and if we do not receive payment by the end of the week we will have to forward you to our legal department…blah, blah, blah”
FUUUUUUUUUUUCK I’m gonna be sued. (kinda funny seeing as how I don’t have an income or any assets except a very large ass)
Mom went into Sugarbaker overdrive and has gotten me some more time. We even have a new (higher up) case worker that seems to be on my side. Well she did say to me on the phone, after Mom & I had gone through the saga, “Well bless your heart honey!” Yes. Please do bless my heart & don’t sue the pants off of me. Actually you can have the pants but just know that they will turn your ass navy.
To placate the hospital we had to pay them a nice little chunk. ho hum…
That brings us to issue #2: My grandmother’s insurance is insane. We enrolled her in one of those supplemental prescription insurances at the first of the year. I set it up so that the insurance company would automatically deduct its fee each month from GM’s checking account. GM gets a monthly income from social security & my GF’s pension. But it is not much at all. Nobody could really live off of it. But there was enough for her to pay for this RX insurance.
Then, on tuesday (as the week gets progressively shitty) I get a letter that says something to the effect of, “Due to a processing error on our part we have not deducted any payments for four months and so could you just send us a check for $500 just as soon as possible?” Now I could ask GM for the money. But that would be nuts of me.
GM hasn’t actually PAID for anything in years. She has no concept of how much stamps cost or her aqua net or her suntan pantyhose…She hands me a $10 and tells me to fill the car up with gas. So methinks explaining the insurance cash issue with her would not be such a brilliant idea. I have a hard enough time getting her to take her pills as is – I can only imagine her refusing to take them any more if she knows how much they cost.
& then there is the cost of my recent insemination & all my current RE doctor visits with monitoring…
So the bottom line is that I just can’t quite see how my spending $200 for a cut & color is something that I ought to be doing right now. & I’m bummed about that.
But then there is a little part of me that thinks…hmmm. You always said you didn’t want to cut your hair until you get knocked up so…um…you know.
& by the way the random yard photos are just my attempt to put a little “pretty” in today’s post.
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
Sorry Calli. God all that sucks BIG TIME. Good luck.
This is all bureaucratic bullshit. Bah.
I’m with you on the “sampson” hair growing till pregnant thing. Though it’s starting to stick to the back of my neck when I sleep…..
There is no winning.
We better all get +’s because we’ve all had particlarly awful weeks.
Ah. Poor You. But your hair does look beautiful as it is, which has to be some consolation.
My grandmother went crazy when the plumber came round to unblock the toilet. she was running around the basement, holding her head in her hands screaming “whaaaaat…whaaaaaaaaaaaat”. I tried to ask the plumber just to talk to me and whispered, tell her you got it wrong, i’ll pay, but he wouldn’t. stood there stony faced.
now my father pays and then asks my grandmother for a cheque (for a smaller ammount) which he never cashes.
But this is beside hte point. the real point is your bloody bills. i really am sorry. here’s hoping the babies come SOON.
again i loose the crucial centre… when the plumber came round to unblock the toilet and then told her how much it would cost.
UGH!!! That is aweful. All of it. Though it is funny to think of what your GM must think things cost now… kinda like my GM.
Anyway, I can sympathize with you because that georgous color I got back in April? Well, I can’t afford to maintain it and my hair didn’t stop growing to please me. So there’s currently a box of stuff from the grocery store sitting on my kitchen counter as we speak. I’ve been putting it off hoping we’d win the lottery, but I’m thinking I can’t put it off much longer…
Holy crap, that’s some serious money shit you’ve got going on. I hope things start to improve rapidly. But maybe you can start selling your blood or something that replaces itself, instead of a kidney or your first born. Just a thought.
hydrangeas ARE pretty, aren’t they…
Sending you a WINNING lottery ticket, PRONTO!
In addition, as i’m reading the saga, nodding my head thinking “yeah, i wouldn’t feel i had $30 to spend on a new do either” i get to the PUNCH line–$200 for a HAIRCUT AND COLOR??? HOLY you know what! I don’t think i could FIND a place around here that would charge that much (and if i did i would except a full body massage, manicure, pedicure, and facial in addition!)
I hope you and you mother can get stuff straightened around so you don’t have to pay for your lap…that’s just NUTS. Maybe you can call GM’s insurance co and see if they can deduct the $500 from her account…i don’t know…i’m not having much better luck here.
Hang in, girl…keep writing cuz even if it isn’t helping you, it’s sure helping a lot of the rest of us!
bless your heart… seems like the money sharks like you as well as all of us :p
why is it when some thing goes well some thing else messes up :p
hugs to you…tonya
yikes girl. what a crappy week for you. {{{hugs}}}
hopefully the hospital will give you a “cash” (a.k.a. non-insurance) discount or something to knock that price down. maybe mom could argue to pay the same contract rate as the insurance company was given. just some thoughts.
it sucks regardless.
Ah geeze. Insurance companies. What more to say? It’s a money-making business & if people get trampled along the way, well, those are acceptable losses in the quest for the almighty dollar. So sorry to hear about your $$ woes. It just plain sucks. Big hugs!
That really sucks.
What sucks, too, is when good, decent people like you make good faith efforts to take care of outrageous bills while haggling with insurance companies, and then get burned anyway and treated like you’re NOT trying to be responsible and get threatening letters about nonpayment and grace periods and such. And that’s not even getting into how much it sucks to be told something would be covered and then told it won’t be.
Responsible people, like you, shouldn’t have to deal with this nonsense.
your insurance is crazy. is what they are doing legal?
$200 for a cut and color??? You’re in Alabama, not Chicago! Ask around and find out where other people you know go. Or, as I did, find a salon that carries your favorite product (we use Nioxin – now THAT’S pricey, but it keeps our hair from falling out) and go there; often the stylists have extra training without a horribly inflated sticker price.
Or come on up – I’ll introduce you to my stylist, who will do a bang-up job for $65 plus tip. You’ll even have enough money left over to fill up GM’s gas tank.
Every time I read about insurance problems and the price of health care in the US I am so grateful that I live in Australia I want to cry. You could have had that op for FREE here! And your GM’s meds would cost (for most meds) about $4 per script because she’s a pensioner.
Oh, good heavens, I HATE money.
You are always funny, though. That’s pretty admirable of you.
Come back to LA… where I have a divine girlie for you who does colour and cut for $70 combined. I miss my favourite redhead…
Oh sweetie.
First off, they can’t sue you for medical bills. Ever. They can threaten, but they can’t do anything. As long as you are making good faith payments (which can be as little as $5 a month) they can’t DO anything.
Says the person with over fifty grand still owed to various doctors and hospitals for the no skin baby.
Fight with them more. Really. I fight with insurance companies all day long and they may deny it the first few times, but evetually bills DO get paid. Especially if you had a preapproval. I’ll fight with them if you want me to
Sorry that money sucks. Yeah, it does. Big hugs to you.