[LeanyBean]

Is it just me or are the federal laws just crazy?! You need to provide a certified birth certificate, Social Security card and photo ID for everyone in the household. This is after you fall within the financial limitations. Holy Snot People! Oh yeah but they need no note or proof of any kind from a doctor to prove if someone is pregnant. WTF?!?!?!?!?!?!? Oh let me mention that you need to provide all of this in person. You can't mail any of it in with your application nor can you make a copy, they need the original copy or a new certified copy. So I added everything up and it will cost us nearly half a weeks pay to obtain certified copies of all our birth certificates if we don't want to wait up to 8 weeks. Such bullmalarckey! I understand this country wants to reform healthcare stuffs but just for a family who lives at or below teh poverty line we have to spend so much money just to get some extra help on teh medical bills is crazy. We have insurance but I know it doesn't do it all. We want the MA just to help out with what we can't afford to pay. What else I want to know is how the hell do you get a government issued ID for a toddler. Seriously. with how quickly children grow and change would it really be worth it to buy the IDs each year for each child. I think Iowa's rate for one photo Id is around 20 so that's 60 bucks for our family until January then it goes to 80. Maybe those putzes on Capitol Hill really need to see how Canada runs their government sponsored healthcare and see what can be done to implement it here without raping us hard working citizens harder for their outrageous taxes.

I'm sorry ladies and gents but I just had to get this out of my system. F***ing photo IDs for toddlers and certified birth certificates for everyone and everything needs to be done in person.Yet they take you at your word if you tell them you are pregnant. No proof necessary. All horse****! My hubby and I have one working vehicle and he needs it for work M-F from 5 or 6 a.m. until 4 p.m. So when I need to be somewhere I either have to ask someone else or hubby needs to get a ride from someone else. So when exactly are we supposed to get all of this done? The city he works in is the city we need to do all of this. If he takes off work we lose that much needed income.

I must go off on a tangent here about certified birth certificates. Why don't states hand those out at birth? oh yeah to make you give them more money. 16 bucks each through Minnesota, beginning at 21 bucks in Colorado and then of course the processing fee and shipping fees on top of that, and 10 bucks in Pennsylvania. However in PA its just a standard birth certificate and you do you one at birth. In Minnesota you need to fill out the application forms in front of the notary and have them notarized to even make the application valid enough for them to give you a birth certificate. No idea exactly how Colorados works but I am thinking I should have sent my hubby over to the courthouse when we went out for his grandmother's funeral when his dad and uncles went.

This all makes me so da**ed upset. We can't afford everything as is yet we need to ante up the money to get all this stuff to get that extra boost to medical coverage. F***ing bull****.

Again I apologize for my language but I was censoring myself as best I could. Sometimes the words just need out, y'know?

[mcmama]

Now that is what we have auto censors for!

I hear you loud and clear. Any time you are dealing with social services you will run into "snot people" especially when dealing with medical care.

I have a mentally ill friend from church who was raped. Try combining legal, disability, counseling, and law enforcement for someone who is 100% disabled and the victim of a violent crime. One end does not talk to the other.

We had a victory in court today thanks to legal aid, and the support she received from me and members of our church. Otherwise, I think that the poor woman would have killed herself.

Social services did not "get" why she was not jumping through all the hoops until I showed up, thanked them for their help 10 years earlier (not!) and explained it all for them. Then I told them that coordinating her services was not my fulltime job, thank you very much.

This morning the judge sniped at her attorney about missing a court date "failure to appear" - only we did not fail, the PREVIOUS attorney that had been appointed to advocate for her thought it had been post poned. The judge was operating from the pressure of a crammed calendar (this was a civil permanent restraining order, in case the monster ever gets out of jail) and on the assumption that mentally ill people who are in and out of the hospital coughing up blood can just go to some office and get an attorney who will do everything right the first time.

At any rate, I was proud of her. She took her medications, calmed down, listened to me, to our pastor, prayed, did as her attorney said, did not let the snarky judge rattle her, and she came through an ordeal that would be very difficult for someone with no disabilities.

One side does not talk to another when coordinating these things - makes it frustrating, and expensive.

[QueenAngie]

Arlene, what a shame about trying to get all those certificates plus the added $$$$ it takes.
We had to get 4 birth certificates locally at the Public Records here in town
and before it was done, I was ready to pull my hair out. I feel your pain.
Now that we have those certificates, they are in a very safe place.

I hear it is the same with trying to obtain a passport these days, but have not gone that route.


Janet, give your friend high 5's! She should be very proud that she came out the victor instead of simply a victim. What a good friend you are!

[mcmama]

One of the difficulties with this woman is that she has so many medical needs, and is totally on disability - but when she needs something like knee surgery, they just go ahead and schedule her for follow up like she is on some kind of private insurance. She does not know how to ask the right questions about the "maze" of medicare and local hospitals and doctors. There should be someone in one of those agencies who gatekeeps for people like this. Now she is in financial trouble, and no one really explained the obligations to her, beyond the usual "sign here" stuff.

Arlene, I just had my own birth certificate replaced, and it is ridiculously expensive to have certified copies. I now have to get one for my youngest - somehow we never got one when he was born (unless my ex lost it) just zerox copies. Whether I do this online through vital check or go down to the local registry, it still costs a fee to have it certified.

The vitalcheck is the easiest way to order it online, and takes some of the confusion out of dealing with the local agencies. But it does cost.

[MissyChrissy]

I know every state is different, but here in NY you can take your original document to the social services office, and they'll make their own copies right then & there, and return your original to you.

Also-here you do have to prove your pregnant. A signed note from a dr stating what your expected due date is.

AND even if you have your own insurance, Medicaid CAN and WILL sue the father to be reimbursed in NY after they determine you're financially capable of doing so. And they are the ones who decide that-they don't care what your bills are. You might want to check into that & see if you state reserves that option.

I'm all for universal health care. Considering what people pay for private insurance, we'd be SAVING money by paying slightly higher taxes & covering the nation.

[mcmama]

I am in favor of national insurance too - but not administered the way that medicare and medicaid are. The levels of disjointed bureaucracy are astounding.

[LeanyBean]

I don't think it is so wrong to have a simple system in place where people can get help when they need it. Unfortuantely it seems that politician need to line their pockets from the deal. Perhaps in the future things will be better. Who knows.

Janet, I must send kudos to the woman you are talking about. She should be proud of herself to have gotten all of that accomplished without blowing her top. Huzzah!

[JeanLynn81]

I know here in MO I had to provide proof of pregnancy, but no ss card, i.d. or anything. I just had to put everyone living in the household's ss #'s on the application.

I would be a little peeved too if I was in your shoes. to you! Its tough getting the government to help!