Step 1 on the Road to Recovery

Well, I woke up this morning to discover that Jamie's unemployment pay had FINALLY been deposited into our checking account.  WHEW.  It was like Unemployment Claus had visited us during the night.

And according to the Department of Labor, Unemployment Claus will make a return visit tonight to gift us with $277 more glorious, belated unemployment dollars!  :D

Then, starting next week, we'll just get regular weekly installments of $277 per week until January 25th (or until Jamie is finally lucky enough to land a job, whichever comes first).  :/

Yay!  Now we're one notch above being completely destitute!  :D

Anyway, so since I saw that the unemployment money was finally really starting to come in today, then I called about enrolling Lilly in PeachCare insurance, and thankfully (?) since Jamie is unemployed (and I don't have a job), Lilly can be enrolled without having to go through the usual 6-month uninsured waiting period.  All we would need to do would be to cancel Lilly's current Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance policy, and the moment that Lilly becomes "uninsured", just call PeachCare back, and Lilly can then be covered, and it will only cost us probably somewhere in the neighborhood of $10 to $20 per month (as opposed to $142 per month for the Blue Cross Blue Shield policy that Lilly did have).  Whew.

So after I got off the phone with PeachCare, I called Blue Cross Blue Shield to cancel Lilly's policy.  Since we had already paid Lilly's premium for this month, we just decided to let it continue on for the rest of this month until it naturally lapses, so that means that Lilly will become uninsured as of November 1st.  So on November 1st, I will rush my ass to the phone to call PeachCare back and get Lilly insured pronto.

Upon talking to a friend, I learned that upon being approved for PeachCare, you actually must then choose between 3 different plans.  I was under the impression that PeachCare WAS 'The Plan', but no, of course that would be too easy.

The first of the three choices I looked at (Peach State Health Plan), Lilly's pediatric dentist accepted, and the pharmacy that we use accepted it, but Lilly's pediatrician, and the hospital in our town did NOT.

I began to get concerned.

The second of the three choices (WellCare), Lilly's pediatrician accepted, and the pharmacy that we use accepted it, but Lilly's pediatric dentist did NOT.  At that point, I was so freaked out, that I didn't even check to see if our hospital accepted it or not.

I began to feel pretty damn distraught.

I guess I was under the impression that this "PeachCare" insurance (once you managed to get your kid on it) was accepted everywhere by everybody, and everything would be smooth sailing from there on out, but GUESS AGAIN.

So shaking with anger and fear, I took a deep breath and began looking at the last choice (Amerigroup).  And thank God, this particular plan turned out to be accepted by Lilly's pediatrician, the pharmacy we use, Lilly's pediatric dentist, the hospital in our town, and the eye doctor where Jamie got his eye exam and glasses earlier this year (my eye doctor, 'Dr. Badbreath', does NOT accept it, but what the heck, Lilly has never even had an eye exam yet, and doesn't appear to need glasses --at least not yet--, so I was just kind of trying to think toward the future 'what if' she ever did).  The only thing that was NOT covered by this Amerigroup plan was any of the walk-in clinics in our town.  Well, big deal.  I'd really rather take Lilly to her pediatrician if she's sick anyway, and now that Lilly has been put on ADHD medication, I really probably should only take her to her pediatrician anyway so that they can make sure that she isn't prescribed something that would interact adversely with her medication, and also just so they can keep a more accurate record of her total health in the first place.

So I don't really know how it works, but now I've just got to keep my fingers crossed that we will be given the option to choose this Amerigroup thing that falls under PeachCare, since it was the only one of the three choices that encompassed the providers that we currently use (aside from the stupid walk-in-clinic thing, but who cares about that).

I don't know if any of the three plans cost more than the other.  I just wanted to make sure that we didn't have to change Lilly's doctor or dentist, because I REALLY didn't want to have to do that!!!

My friend assures me that we will definitely be able to choose the Amerigroup plan, and that the cost of all three of the plans is just based off of your income; so it's not like any of the plans is cheaper or higher or better or worse than the other.  Basically, you should just choose whichever one of the three plans has most of the providers that you use.  (Why they have three different plans to choose from is beyond me.  Probably just to make it confusing, is my guess).  And I think the highest amount that you would be expected to pay on any of the plans would probably be somewhere around $33 per month (which is what my friend has to pay for her son for the WellCare).  So even that still beats $142 for Blue Cross Blue Shield!

So I'm glad there is finally a pinpoint of light at the end of a very dark, very bleak tunnel.  It's about time!  :/