SS apt. today/rant and rave

[Guest guest]

Well, I'm going in for my first apt. with social security today at 9:00 am.

I'm going in on a not so positive note, everyone tells me to be prepared that

they will deny us at least the first time. I don't understand why that is. I

looked up the ss websites own definitions of qualifying disabilities, and he

definitely qualifies under more than one..did you know that consistently being

under the 3% for height and weight qualifies a baby? Weird.

I'm not even sure what we would be qualifying FOR, other than medicaid. We

have private insurance and everything through Lance's job, but he makes too

much money to qualify for anything else. Our medical bills so far are already

up

there at around $50,000.00 because of what our insurance doesn't cover. So

Medicaid would be an awesome help. We have 2 deaf people in our family, so the

hearing aid payment is as much as our house payment! (we pay $1000.00 a month

on hearing aids!) Not to mention now that we are going to be getting into it

with all these Drs. the formula and stuff that we are going to be paying for,

(the insurance co will not cover the first $2000.00 of any medical expense.

After the $2000.00 they pay at 80%) it's going to be really interesting trying

to afford all of this. We are stuck with this insurance as our only option

through his work, and even though it's a major co. (BC/BS) it's the worst I've

ever heard of! I've worked in healthcare since I was 18, and have dealt with

lots of insurance co's, but this one just sucks. Our premium is $350.00 a

month, and we have a $2000.00 family deductible, plus a $500.00 individual

deductible..which means we have to pay $2500.00 before anything is covered for

Xavier, and if one of the rest of us needs something, we still have to cover the

first $500.00. This is not really feasable..for example, my brother was just

killed in November, and I have been having a really hard time dealing with the

stress, nightmares, et. especially with the added stress of Xavier thrown in.

Pretty much everyone in my family is on some kind of psychotropic drug, both of

my parents being bi-polar, and I just was putting off the inevitable, I

guess, I knew that I needed some help, if only to get through the first few

months... I finally got myself to call a shrink and make an apt. and I was told

that

I would have to pay $500.00 for my first apt. because *my* deductible had not

yet been met! Needless to say, I did not ever go to any kind of counseling,

especially when Xavier needs so much in the way of Drs....I'm not going to

blow $500.00 on myself for something non-life threatening! It's frustrating

though. I'm still having a hard time getting through the days and especially

the

nights when I am alone. (lance works the night shift) It's really a catch

22...he makes " too much " money for any kind of financial aid, made just over the

limit for the child tax credit, but we still have to pay out our rear ends in

taxes..we would have more money if he made less! Ugh! This makes no sense.

Anyway, so I just wanted to get out a few of my jitters before I leave, wish

me luck!

Jen

Xavier 14months, 13lbs RSS (?)

Emerald, 5, Non RSS

Wyatt,4, Non RSS