GOODNIGHT, FUCKERS #698: HOW I WAS SIGNED UP FOR MEDICAID

It's weird. Over the last two-three weeks maybe four or five friends started talking about Medicaid. I don't know if there's something in the air or not. I mentioned that I might write a GF column about it to one of them, so here it is.

Back in the first half of 2020 I was signed up for Medicaid. I can hear some of you editors out there grimacing at the passivity of that statement. I assure you, I did *not sign up* for it. I *was signed up* for it. Or if I did sign up, then I don't remember.

I lost my job in January 2020. I went through a lengthy hospital stay later that month and went through alcohol withdrawals at the time. And since I constantly had stomach issues back then, I was a regular at the ER. My veins actually collapsed because they put so many IVs in me. To put a new one in, they had to use an ultrasound. Without a job--and by extension, without insurance--how would I pay for that?

More importantly, how would the hospital get paid for that?

The hospital signed me up for it. If I signed any paperwork for Medicaid, they had me do it while I was three sheets on Dilaudid. As I recall they were out of morphine at the time and had to up me to Dilaudid. So it's possible that I signed it while in an opioid haze. But I think they just signed me up for it.

That saved a lot of my finances. I ended up declaring bankruptcy in February 2021, so a lot of it would have gone up in smoke anyway, but I still had my stomach issues, and I didn't get insurance again until maybe April or June of that year? So yes. Still very helpful.

During the pandemic Medicaid decided not to hound recipients to renew, so even though I now had insurance, I had *two* insurances. I didn't have to pay for anything, which pleased me to no end. The ride had to come to an end, though. Now that the pandemic is over, Medicaid is having people renew. There's no way I'll be allowed back on due to having a job and insurance. I guess I'll have to go back to paying copays, etc. Ah well. It was fun while it lasted.

It was nice of the hospital to do that for me/them. Considering the state of my mind back then (including a trip to the psych ward), I don't think it would have been something that would have occurred to me.

All good things . . .