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Before the change in the health care law I was uninsured. I was able to stay on my fathers insurance during my first years of college until I got married. I was still a student and working at a restaurant. We could not afford insurance. I was not to worried about it because I was generally a healthy person. Then I got pregnant. I found out when I was about six weeks along. I knew I needed insurance to go and see a doctor. So I went down to my local medicate office and filled out paperwork and brought proper documentation. I waited for weeks. I called my case worker. She never answered, and never called me back. Until one day she did answer and I was fed up. I asked her what had been going on with no response. She told me it was my fault because one of my paycheck stubs was not the right week. I had to go back and fill out more paperwork and turn in one more paycheck stub. In the end I was five months pregnant before I ever saw a Doctor. I went in on a Tuesday with my husband and finally heard our baby’s heartbeat. They said I could come back on Tuesday for my ultrasound and to find out the sex. I thank god that our baby boy was born four months latter with no complications. After he was born I was no longer insured, but he was. However it worked out that Obama health care laws had reached my fathers employer and both my sister and I now had insurance through him. I am now one semester away from completing my degree as a secondary ed. teacher. The story does not have the happiest ending however. My husband and I moved in late 2011 before our son turned one. We moved two buildings over to a two bedroom apt. I was taking 3 classes and very preoccupied with the move. I did not know that I had to personally notify Medicaid of our move. I changed our address at the post office and thought that would take care of it. A few months passed without any problems. In December Liam got sick with a cold, we took him to the Doctor. No problem. Got medication and he was fine again. Later in Feb.2012 he had a skin rash (all of this was normal, it happens kind of thing). We took him to the doc. and we had to schedule a check up afterwords. When he came in for the check up they said his insurance was denied. We thought there must be some mistake. It took us forever to track down the problem, and when finally someone did tell us the problem we could not believe it. Because we did not notify them of the move they canceled him in Nov. 2011. They never called us to inform us on any of this. They had both of our phone numbers along with emergency contact info. In April the bills started coming. We owe over 1,000 just for his Dec. visit. I presented his insurance card every time we went to the doc. I just don’t understand how I should have all the blame. Also while we were trying to get Medicaid back our son came down with a bought a fevers. We had to take him to the emergency room when his lymphnode swelled up. Another 1,000 for them to give us antibiotics and tell us to go see his family doctor in the a.m. Well we went and he ordered blood work. He keep telling us to get more blood work done because his numbers did not look right. We were on a sliding pay scale at this doctor because it was our only option. So we payed the 50-65 dollars for the tests to be done plus the $20 doctor visit. Maybe it does not sound like much but to a couple with a child who make 18,000 a year combined…it is. Finally the day before I was taking my son to visit my husbands family in Spain (tax money for the flight…and free food and place to stay so not much money was required, it was a must since he is almost 2 and has hardly met any of them) The doctor said maybe you should go see a kidney specialist in Indy or Chicago because I cant do anything more for him. This was the night before our flight and we were facing a huge dilemma. My step mom got us international insurance and we made plans to see a doctor in Spain (a private family doc. of my husbands grandparents). When we got there the news was more than good. Because my son had been taking antibiotics and was under the age of 18 the numbers were completely normal. All the important numbers were fine. They sent the papers to a pediatrician to make 100 percent sure. She agreed he was a perfectly healthy 20 month old. They said they here that a lot that in the United States they find anything they can to keep you walking back in the door to pay. Do you know how much they charged us (since the ins. did not cover pre-existing medical conditions)…nothing. I have never been treated so well by any person of the medial profession. It was like we were family. And they did not charge us a thing, even though we took up their time with two separate appointments. We are still waiting for medicaid to go through. The first time my husband went to refile he told them he was applying for his son. One woman had him fill out all the paper work incorrectly. Then a second who wanted to help him put it right, but still did it wrong. I figured this out when we got a letter from Medicaid denying Jose (my husband) for Medicaid. They somehow had him apply for himself. We know he cant get Medicaid or any other gov. assistance because he is still a permanent resident and not a full U.S. Citizens. until he applies for the test this winter. So we wondered what had gone wrong making us waste more precious time…they had him check the wrong box. So now we are waiting to see what will become of all our med. bills and if our son will ever have a regular doctor we can trust. Obama is doing the right thing by trying to change our horrible health coverage. It seems so ridiculous that one tiny mistake is landing my husband and I in debt just because we wanted to make sure our son was okay. I am thankful that for one more year I will have insurance because of Obama. He is making the first step of many. We need to keep moving forward. We are one of the last modern countries without some kind of government health care that takes care of all its people regardless of ability to pay. My husband and I look to the positives though…our son is alive and healthy…we have each other and our love. We know others have not been so lucky.

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PREACH, Claire.

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