I offer this telling in the same spirit that I sometimes collect images of Kimberly Guilfoyle — like, is this shit for real? please feel free to skip. But if you skip, be sure to see book updates below.
Sat down to begin the Plan B Medicare sign up and noticed that the required PDF proving I currently had employee-provided health care was not signed. Ken’s was. Mine wasn’t. Okay. Sent it off to HR in Houston.
This pisses me off a little. Reminds me a lot of our financial counselor whom I have to inform at EVERY FUCKING visit that I’ve been collecting SS since age 62. Why is this so hard to remember? It’s literally his job and he has computer programs to track the data.
It gets difficult to not take this personally. The wife. The non-earning wife.
Fortunately HR in Houston responds quickly with new PDF.
Meanwhile, I have a Social Security account and a Medicare account but now you need to use login.gov.
In trying to set up a login.gov account, they offered first the typical six-digit verification code, but then a longer one that for some insane reason they would only mail to me. It would take a month they said. Well great, because I have two more weeks of employee-provided health care.
I called the number on the website and spent an hour and twenty minutes on hold (because the three times I tried to leave a call back number, I was interrupted before finishing the area code. They couldn’t hear me?) (It’s okay, the wait — I worked on my jigsaw puzzle). Of course the result was a distant voice saying they couldn’t help. “Go in person,” she said.
Mailed verification number? Go in person? Seriously?
So we went to the Social Security office first thing the next day and in a very orderly process got an authentication number in person.
Back to signing up for Plan B.
When we finally figured out how where to apply ( hint: it’s not on the Medicare site, it’s on the SS site), they wouldn’t accept the PDF of my now signed employment verification form.
But wait — first we had to track down the email with the HR PDF attachment. Having not used email on the desktop in months, I had to use two step verification to sign in to Google. By some fucking miracle I could readily find my most recent password. But they didn’t send the code. And they didn’t send it some more. Not in my stated email. Not by text to my phone.
Was I losing my mind? Was this part of a plot to make seniors stroke out and ease the burden on our health care system?
Finally! Finally! Saw that they send a notification (not an email) to the google mail app on my phone. Huh?
Now ready, we filled everything out on the required form but it would not upload the required PDF. We tried and tried. Watched the spinning circle. Walked away from the spinning circle. Tried again.
WTAF? Mercury retrograde anyone?
Finally, started over and it was a go. Probably the form had timed out. Maybe should have considered that sooner.
This was a day and a half process that I thought would take 15 minutes. I’m not stupid, I tell myself. Really I’m not.
Still have to sign up for supplemental and drug plan. Wish me luck.
Meanwhile, this is happening.
Amazon’s mysterious algorithms have me as #1 in New Releases for biographical historic fiction. The book hasn’t even launched yet and pre-sales are barely double digits so I truly don’t get it.
Still it was a thrill, so official looking and all.
You can preorder the EBOOK version of my novel on Amazon, Kobo, and Apple Books. You’ll be able to order the paperback on 9/5.
The Weight of Cloth tab up in the menu is getting lots of my attention. Grooming with related links etc. Check it out. You can tap the link here or go up to menu and tap the link there.
The whole Medicare signing up process is crazy. Don’t put off doing the prepare, for certain. I waited a few months and now 15 years later I still pay the late filing penalty every month!! Forever, I get to be reminded that I was slow.
Ugh that penalty! But yeah we should’ve been doing all this two months ago.
Dee~ I don’t know if I should laugh or cry! I can so relate to all of this as it was my month of March this year, switching to Medicare in the middle of everything else. ugh. I kept telling myself that I am not stupid too…and that English is my first (only) language…I SHOULD be able to understand! I don’t look through the lens of “The non-earning wife” – although that really made me think some – I look through the lens of “little man” and think of folks who absolutely have to make all of this work for them. Plus, I do it with my laptop and dumb phone! sigh.
We have gone to our SS office in person a few times and gotten answers and some nice employees to help us, plus the building and campus is tree filled and peaceful. That really seems to matter to me these days, the calming effect location can have.
I will explore the book tab later when I am back from the doctor, but what I saw so far looks great! How exciting this must be after so much time and work has gone into it. Congrats, congrats, congrats!!!
Don’t get me started about medicare stuff. I was on the phone so much I used up all my minutes on my plan. and the story is too long to tell.
congrats on the book.
I think that if our health care system is going to cost us so much money and favor private insurers, the least they could do is make it easier to sign up for
It’s ridiculous really. Outrageous.
?? i could have sworn that just now I read a post about your reading partner having some of the pages of The Weight of Cloth in her lap while on a plane ride. Taking red pen in hand, she went to turn the page when the stranger sitting next to her asked her not as he/she was not done reading it and it was very good! Now I don’t think I dreamed this and I wanted to say to you Dee, what does it feel like to know that someone could not wait to continue reading your words…how this must feel like you are on top of the world to know that someone so enjoyed what they were reading… brace yourself my dear, cause this is just the wonderful beginning…
That was over on Deb Lacativa’s writing blog. It was a really nice post!
Went to Nancy’s blog and enjoyed your stories about music and the musical Hair. You are quite the creature, aren’t you! Would’ve loved to have e danced with you to the Temptations back in the day!
ah… first of all I have to say that I lost everything into the ether when I hit “comment”. This is try 2. I am not on a good connection. Anyway here’s what I can recall FWIW:
ARGGGGGUH on SS Medicare snags. Time spent on the phone, in the office with multiple officers (?), anxiety about receiving stuff either on paper or via email. Then my password wouldn’t work!! That kicked off a entire month of back and forth due to SS “having to be so careful” to follow convoluted procedure because of hackers. I could go on but I will spare you.
SO HAPPY that Amazon loves The Weight of Cloth!! That rating must make up for a little bit of aggravation getting everything on there.
I want to call you out as a great dancer. I remember going to a reggae concert in Northampton and being spell bound by how you knew how to dance/sway to that music. Whenever I hear “Pressure Drop”, I smile and try to channel the ability you have to catch the beat and sink into the floor gracefully. At this stage of life I might tip over trying but so what?
It’s actually both a comfort and not to know how much other people have struggled with Medicare. Why must it be so complicated? Inefficient?
I used to love to dance. Wish I still did, like Marti.
Calendar marked!
As for your Medicare obstacle course… I’m very sympathetic and reminded of when we were trying to figure out insurance and unemployment benefits during the pandemic. I can’t tell you how many times during the similar hours of hair pulling frustration, brain teasing forms, sitting on hold, etc, that we talked about how hard this was for us to grapple with, as two fairly intelligent, educated people… and wondered how those with less opportunities, support, and or language skills ever manage?!