I'm mostly an armchair activist; I write letters, sign petitions, blog and talk with friends and family about issues that are of concern to me. Sometimes I get 'form letter' replies from Claire McCaskill or Roy Blunt, but last month I got a couple of more personal replies from Claire McCaskill. I'm thankful for her concern for her fellow Missourians. She has given me hope.
I'm 56, college educated, and unemployed since October 2007. I received Missouri unemployment for 26 weeks, and then I was told I didn't qualify for any extensions. I have a history of health problems, which have gotten progressively worse since I lost my insurance in early 2009. I've suffered from depression, anxiety, sleep disorders, arthritis, bone spurs, degenerative disc disease, fibromyalgia, high blood pressure, and I had a pacemaker implanted in 1999. I now have bad credit due to health problems, which contributes to my continued unemployment, depression, anxiety, and other problems. Over the last year, my health has deteriorated. I've been suffering from dizziness, which my local free clinic has been unable to diagnose or treat with success. Over a year ago, I filed for Medicaid and SSDI, but was turned down for both. I'm waiting on an appeal on the SSDI, which I was told would take at least 15 months.
I was desperate, so I wrote Claire McCaskill a letter about my situation. I was upset and told her I have worked for over 35 years, and now Missouri won't give me any help. To my surprise, I received notice last month that I could file for a 13 week extension on unemployment. Then I received a letter from Claire's office that they wanted more information, so they could help me with my situation. They included a form for me to sign for them to get my medical records. I also received an invitation to a grant information session at my county library, which was hosted by Claire's office and the USDA. I attended and spoke with some locals, handed out some resumes, and plan on trying to write some grant applications for our rural area.
I reapplied for Medicaid last month and was sent to a doctor for an exam. The medicaid doctor was very concerned because my blood pressure was 175/106, my pulse was 105, my EKG abnormal, blood tests abnormal, and she said I should see my doctor ASAP or go to the emergency room. The medicaid doctor told me, she was concerned that I might have had or be ready to have a heart attack or stroke. I don't have a regular doctor and the local free clinic doesn't have the funding for tests, cat scans, etc. The clinic is only open Tuesdays from 5-7pm, you have to have an appointment, and doctors rotate their services each week. I called my cardiologist and found he retired last year. I called the pacemaker clinic where I have an appointment to have a pacemaker check in May. They said I should go to the emergency room if I needed to be seen before May. I hate emergency rooms...I owe $1500 for a visit in 2009 when they never diagnosed or treated the problem. I think it was my gallbladder or ulcerative colitis, but tests only showed ulcers, which they weren't sure what caused...it wasn't h. pylori.
Two days ago, I received a Missouri Healthnet card in the mail and some paperwork that said I had a $425/month spenddown. I wasn't sure what it meant and I called my SSDI lawyer to tell him about it. He told me that it was good news. He also told me that my SSDI hearing has been moved to Dallas, TX for review because of the backlog in Missouri. The lawyer said that if Missouri was giving me Medicaid that it meant they thought I was disabled, and he said the Dallas office was just waiting on the Medicaid paperwork to ok my SSDI. He thought I would be hearing something positive on the SSDI very soon. Yesterday, I got another letter from Claire McCaskill's office. It said they wanted to follow up because I hadn't returned the consent form for them to get my medical records. To tell the truth, I was a little paranoid about giving her office access to my records. Medical records contain very personal information. Now, my faith is somewhat renewed in government. I now have hope. Thank-you Claire for your concern for your fellow Missourians. I really appreciate your support. Maybe I'll even help get a grant to help my community. I'll surely continue to support the efforts for a better and more accountable government.