Government sludge

For a period of time, between when her divorce was finalized and her ex-husband no longer provided insurance for her and when we were married and my insurance would, my wife needed Medicare. She's disabled, and there was no question that she qualified for various assistance programs, including Medicare, but, once we were married, my insurance covered her for an extra deduction from my salary. Hey, I'm lucky to have health care benefits as part of my employment package, so I figure that I should take full advantage. It's a good enough program, and certainly meets our health care needs.

Ok, so, after we're married, my wife calls the Social Security Administration and lets them know about the change in her status, which results in a change in her disability allowance, and she also informs them that she has other insurance and no longer wishes to receive Medicare. End of story, right?

Wrong.

The first true hint that something's wrong is when my insurance refuses to pay medical bills because she's on Medicare. We thought we'd taken care of that. Apparently once the government starts giving you money, it's tough to get them to stop. So she makes another call and requests to be unenrolled from Medicare. End of story?

Not hardly.

We get a statement showing that, in fact, Medicare has been being billed for various medical expenses. Now, we've told various hospitals and physicians' offices that she doesn't have Medicare, that, if she's listed as having Medicare, they should eliminate that from their files. Presumably, they do. But the real question is how the hell Medicare continues her coverage--how it actually finds her--since she changed her name when we were married and changed her name or used her new name at every medical center she's been going to for the past year and half. Amazing detective work. Maybe W. should have assigned the Social Security Administration to look for the WMDs. It could have definitively told him they weren't there, and, by gum, they should know.

So now my wife spends an hour on the phone, listening to muzak for some of the time, being transferred to another office and listening to more muzak, only to be told that she needs to complete a form and get a letter stating that she, in fact, has other insurance. I mean, on the one hand it's nice to know that they care, but, on the other, isn't the government getting just a little bit too intrusive? Seriously, if I want to fall off the grid and live in utter poverty without medical care, sleeping on the grating, shouldn't I damn well be able?

End of screed.