Notes from Maine - 2022/01/16
My friend came over the other night and we fixed the TV enough so it can be used to watch football. I finally had a good reason to do it. I was going to have my father down for a few days to give him something new to complain about and to give my brother a few days off. It didn’t work out. As soon as we made the plan, Dad couldn’t breathe and had to go to the hospital. He as Atrial Fibrillation and his lungs weren’t clearing. One of his personal care assistants got him in the ambulance and took him in.
Once there, they said he had COVID. This was a surprise—nobody around him showed any symptoms or tested positive. They said he was likely asymptomatic, and that his racing pulse and swampy lungs were due to the Afib. Dad is vaccinated. They mostly treated it like it was Afib (Beta blockers, etc.).
They were right.
A second test revealed that he didn’t have COVID. Once they treated the Afib aggressively, he felt fine. He’s back at home now. But, meanwhile, I had already called off the mini-vacation. My brother wasn’t happy about that. Oh well. I’ll offer again when Dad is a little more stable. I’m no longer set up to deal with someone who needs a lot of help. I don’t have an adjustable bed and grab bars everywhere. My sister and I put the door back on the shower.
There’s another reason I was leery of having Dad here—I don’t have health insurance! Back in November, Anthem offered to extend my policy in to 2022. It was either that, or I would have to navigate the new Maine marketplace. I figured I would let it roll, set up auto-pay, got my new card, and called it good. Then I got a letter saying that my old plan was discontinued, so they moved me into a new plan. I decided I should check to see how much the new plan costs. Big mistake.
I called the phone number, and the person couldn’t tell me. While waiting on hold, I used the chat function on the website to ask the same question. The phone person told me I was definitely covered, but couldn’t tell me the price. The website chat told me I wasn’t covered.
It turns out that my policy was set to begin and end on January 1st.
I couldn’t make sense of it—still can’t. They took away the option to pay the bill and sent me a letter explaining that my coverage was only good until midnight of 1/1/2022. I was covered for one day.
I scrambled, used the Maine marketplace, and signed up with a different company, but that policy doesn’t start until February 1st. I have fifteen more days of no health insurance. If I cut off my finger tomorrow, I’m going to keep it in the freezer for a couple of weeks. Oh well.
We’re all just one or two crises away from being destitute. Sometimes that fact hits home. I have no complaints about my current lifestyle. I don’t make as much as I did in the past, but I get along fine and live a great life. It wouldn’t take much to upset the apple cart though.
The dogs are playing again. Albert (puppy) likes to start these fights and get Finn (old man) to chase him around. It can take several minutes to get Finn riled up, but once he gets going, Albert is going to get pinned to the floor and drooled on.
In the barn the sweet little baby horse is waiting for someone to come scratch her. She’ll stand there for an hour while you tell her how pretty she is and scratch her neck. Later, she’ll go outside and run around while her mother eats hay. She loves to run over to the tree, kick her heels up, and then sprint back to the water bucket. If you try to scratch her when she’s outside, she’ll run away at first. People are less trustworthy outdoors, I gather.
Watching the dogs and horses, it’s easy to forget about healthcare, COVID, Afib, and football.
I think I’ll do that for a while.
