Thread by @gwensnyderPHL

I am so fucking furious.

I have spent a part time job's worth of hours trying to navigate health insurance since having our baby last September, and we *still* got screwed over jointly by Medicaid and employer error.

I have a masters in government from an Ivy, folks

I mention the degree not to brag but because people always act like poor people are just too uneducated or uninformed to navigate these systems.

It is not that.

They are designed to screw the working poor.

No amount of education makes them helpful or accessible.

This was an employer-recommended Medicaid program that's supposed to cover the premiums for employer-based partner/child health insurance.

We got a letter from Medicaid and a separate employer one saying we were approved, so I canceled our exchange-based private insurance.

TWO WEEKS later, we get another letter saying that Medicaid has decided the program is no longer cost-effective, they're terminating our coverage.

Huge disappointment, but okay. I schedule all our annuals for February so we can get them in before we switch again.

Went in for my IUD yesterday (it took HOURS to get that approved through insurance last month), and they're like, um, we ran your insurance for the annual pelvic you has a week ago and it didn't go through.

We dig through all the paperwork and try to find the new cards and all we can find is dental.

Guess what?

In the very small print, we can only find dental.

They never bothered to tell us the regular health insurance wasn't actually approved, just dental.

So now all those appointments I crammed in to get done before we lost employer insurance?

They're all out-of-pocket.

I have baseline Medicaid, but my doctors and therapist don't accept it.

And, since I voluntarily canceled my exchange insurance, I don't think I'm technically qualified for special enrollment. Open enrollment is over. I don't think I can even get back on my old exchange insurance, which was not cheap but still cheaper than unassisted employer-based.

All that to say, we jumped through every hoop the government constructed and ended up more screwed than we would have been just not bothering to pursue the assistance we qualified for.

This is a system designed to punish poor people, including the working poor.

No amount of education changes that.

And I hope every social justice-y nonprofit that says "yes we pay poverty wages and won't cover your family, but you can get [Medicaid program] to pay their premiums through us" understands that you are effectively telling your workers, "get fucked"

(Also, in case anyone is worried, we're privileged enough to have options, savings, and a support network, we'll be okay. Most folks that have to navigate this, though? This could be life-ruining.)