Shadows just seem darker these days

[sovay]

spatch has summarized our latest go-round with our health insurance on Twitter. He used a lot less profanity than I would have. I mean, I texted him to ask if "dumpsterfuck" was a word.

The good news, if you want to call it that, is that we can get our coverage reinstated for July. What we do not seem able to do, for the above-detailed reasons that feel like a fish trap rather than a business model, is get any kind of coverage or reimbursement for June.

Our refills having fallen due in the middle of this process, a word which increasingly capitalizes itself à la Kafka inside my head, I just paid out of pocket for a small amount of medications for myself and Rob because otherwise we're relying on willpower and over-the-counter drugs to manage brain chemistry, chronic pain, and an autoimmune disorder. Spoiler: it's not possible. Anyone who suggests we just don't have the right forward-thinking attitude is cordially invited to think of ten unprintable things and enact nine of them.

In mitigated bad news, I was glad to hear that Governor Baker has reversed his original decision to send the Massachusetts National Guard to the U.S.-Mexico border to assist with the unlawful separation of families and the internment of children. The fact that he keeps making decisions like the original decision at all is one of the many, many reasons I plan to replace him with anything with ethics in November. In the meantime, you can donate to RAICES.

In actually good news, of which it's nice to have a little, I started Yoon Ha Lee's Revenant Gun (2018) on the way back from the insurance office, perhaps feeling that one dystopia deserves another, and I am enjoying it tremendously. I last encountered this novel in a relatively early draft, meaning it came as a nice surprise that while the first chapter features Jedao waking up to discover that he's being asked to prosecute a war with uncertain intelligence, patchy memories, and a body that really doesn't remember collecting all these scars, the second chapter features Brezan waking up to discover that he's being asked to run a government, which is definitely worse. I am extremely and unsurprisingly fond of Kel Brezan, who is cranky, basically decent, and would probably do very well left alone in a room with a lot of paperwork as opposed to the labyrinthine space politics he has been required to play ever since someone who looked like Kel Cheris but talked like Shuos Jedao shot the trigger off his gun while he was drawing it on them. I already want the crackfic crossover between him and Maia Drazhar.

The rest of this is just tiring.

Comments

[yhlee]

*support support*

Thinking of you. I'm sorry the health insurance people are being terrible.

[moon_custafer]

Sympathies.

[julian]

I eye MassHealth warily. My sympathies.

I read Baker had reversed himself, and immediately called him to thank him for that, and to push him to adopt *some* version of the Safe Communities Act, even if not in the budget, because sheesh.

[lemon_badgeress]

Literally the only thing worse than government offering various social services is when they don't at all.

I hope from here on out the curse will be broken.

[moon_custafer]

because otherwise we're relying on willpower and over-the-counter drugs to manage brain chemistry, chronic pain, and an autoimmune disorder. Spoiler: it's not possible.

Can confirm it’s not, and that’s me speaking as a person who’s made off-label use of non-drowsy Claritin...

[selkie]

I know a bunch of short people with sticks and knife shoes. If we don't feed 'em in the van on the way up to Massachusetts, we could wreak some serious shit on the offices of the Commonwealth administration.

Child's always agitating us to do a travel team.

[pameladean]

Anyone who suggests we just don't have the right forward-thinking attitude is cordially invited to think of ten unprintable things and enact nine of them is a fine sentence, and I am sorry you have had occasion to construct it.

I can see that you might well feel that your energy and stress management could be better employed elsewhere, but this is SO egregious that I wonder whether there is some consumer assistance bureau or ethics watchdog or something that could beat up on Mass Health for you. Their conduct is unconscionable.

P.

[umadoshi]

What we do not seem able to do, for the above-detailed reasons that feel like a fish trap rather than a business model, is get any kind of coverage or reimbursement for June.

AAAARGH. >.< That's awful.

[rosefox]

"Dumpsterfuck" sure is a word now. I really hope they get their shit together, approve your appeal, and refund all your out-of-pocket costs, because wow.

[thisbluespirit]

The rest of this is just tiring.

I am sorry.

[strange_complex]

I am so, so utterly sorry and enraged about the total fuck-up with your health insurance. Wishing you every strength with getting through the next few weeks.

[tree_and_leaf]

'Dumpsterfuck' seems relatively restrained, considering.

[kate_nepveu]

I'm very sorry.

And a character who would cross over with Maia is an extremely good reason to, well, not read right now because I don't have the spare processing capacity, but to look forward to when I do.

[choco_frosh]

I texted him to ask if "dumpsterfuck" was a word.

There's a comic somewhere fairly early in Questionable Content in which one of the characters, trying to dispose in advance of every horrible possibility of what she's about to hear, suggests "OhGod, you had filthy dumpster sex, didn't you?!?". So probably, although possibly not in the sense you meant...

[kore]

WAIT, THEY'RE NOT EVEN GOING TO LET YOU PAY FOR JUNE WITH THE MONEY YOU EXPLICITLY PAID FOR JUNE WITH BECAUSE THEY SAY YOU HAD NO COVERAGE THEN AND IF YOU WANT TO TRY TO HAVE IT APPLIED FOR JUNE YOU HAVE TO PAY FOR JUNE? AGAIN?

***SETS EVERYTHING ON FIRE***

[gwynnega]

I am sorry your insurance company is being so over-the-top Kafkaesque. I hope they will end up having to reimburse you for your June out-of-pocket expenses.