Rant #3,561: Oh, How It Hurts

Oh, the pain!

Recently, my wife and I were alerted to the fact that since our health insurance company wasn't making enough money in our area, we, and presumably hundreds of others, were being dropped from our plan on January 1, 2025.

We did our due diligence, and my wife and I supposedly have new plans that will take effect by the first of the new year.

Then comes our son ...

He is considered disabled, so he has both Medicaid and Medicare--

But his vision is covered by our old plan, so he is being dropped, too, and we had to find another plan for him.

We made the appointment to talk over the phone with the same person we spoke to about my wife's and my plans, and yesterday was the day that we agreed to speak about a plan for our son.

Well, after an hour and a half of waiting, we have a new plan for our son, and after another hour and a half on the phone, much of it through dinner, I think we are all covered now.

"I think" is the operative phrase here..

So now we presumably all have new plans that take effect on the first of the new year.

There is a little fly in the ointment to all of this.

Our zip code--which is very important to health insurance companies--is mainly a Nassau County zip code.

However, probably due to prior redistricting, a sliver of our zip code is in Suffolk County--and that sliver includes where we live.

This calamity impacted our signing up for our new plans, as the computer system that they used to sign us up would not accept that our zip code crosses over two counties, and when the zip code was added into the form, it always reflected Nassau County, and could not be changed to Suffolk County.

We actually had to register twice because of this quirk, and we were assured by the broker that we had nothing to worry about, that the county isn't that important because no matter what the form reflects, the plan actually crosses over the two counties and includes our zip code--

To which I replied:

"And if we find that it doesn't, you will be getting a phone call from me."

So we were basically told to leave the zip code with the incorrect county as is, because while the zip code is important, if the plan covers the zip code, the county isn't important.

Yup, you can bet I am skeptical, but I have to go with this, until the time that it is proven to actually be not true, which I hope never happens.

And the unfortunate thing is that this is not the first time this has happened.

I had the same problem when I went to the local police precinct to find out how I could get a handicapped parking permit; the desk cop insisted I lived in Nassau County, until another cop told her that yes, I actually do live in Suffolk County.

When I was bedridden when we first moved into this apartment nearly a year ago, I did all the calls to Medicare, Social Security and other agencies to change our address, and I got the same response, that I was in Nassau instead of Suffolk.

And even the Board of Elections gave me some lip when I alerted them of our move.

All of these things have been rectified, but --

We still get mail for Nassau County from the Town of Oyster Bay, which we lived in at our previous address--which is Nassau County all the way.

In fact, we are about just 30 or so yards into Suffolk County, as the administrative offices of our development are in--

You guessed it, Nassau County.

So yes, about 30 yards from our doorstep, I can be in two different counties at the same time, putting one foot in Nassau and the other foot in Suffolk.

Yes, this is all crazy, but your zip code--and where you are in that zip code--impacts so many things in your life, much of which you don't realize.

I just hope our insurance is copacetic with everything, and that we don't have any problems when it activates in the new year.

So, I will say it again--

Oh, the pain!