Medi-cal became unaffordable when I got a raise

I am at the end of my rope and I'm wonder if anyone out there can help. I am a single mom of a ten year old girl and ever since she was born I have had Blue Cross Medi-cal. Suddenly because I started to make slightly more a month (maybe $100. more), medi-cal has given me a ''share of cost'' of 1100. a month. I went in to bring pay stubs to show my income had not gone up that much and recieved a notice in the mail that since it had gone up by $2000. or so dollars(huh?)now my share of cost is around $2500. a month. That is more than I have ever made per month, I sometimes make less because I am in education and seasonally my income goes down or disappears altogether.

From this I can only come to the conclusion that my worker is either crazy, drunk, or even worse discriminating against me for an unknown reason. Meanwhile my daughter's asthma is getting worse and I cannot afford her medications or even take her to the doctor. Since kids can die of asthma, that is a big concern. I am stressed to the limit and don't know how much longer I can hold up. To top it up my income goes up and down to the point that I am afraid of being evicted and becoming homeless. I am seeing a therapist but that is paid by, you guessed it, Medi-cal. I have no real supportive family. I am a paraeducator (7 years experience) and the only jobs I can get are seasonal (summer) or part time school district jobs plus seasonal after school program jobs.I have 2 bachelor's degees. I am close to getting my teaching credential and consider myself good at what I do but I do not have the time or babysitting to go back to finish school.

Communicating with the medi-cal people is next to impossile because they have an automated phone system and I have to take off work to go in there and wait to see a very unhelpful person. My daughter's father is not helping and it would take six months to a year to get a fair amount of child support. I beleive it would involve court. I am applying for Healthy Families for my daughter but it won't cover me and I am on meds too. Help, my life has become unliveable. Any advice would be appreciated. anonymous

After NINE MONTHS of calls and letters to my case worker, the Medi-Cal coverage was cancelled because I didn't send in certain forms, which of course I never received because my address STILL hadn't been changed in the system. At that point I filed for a hearing, and finally things moved forward. The file was transferred and coverage was restored (although even that took about 4 months). My advice to you is to file for a hearing so that your case worker receives some oversight. I think (but I'm not completely sure on this) there are also low- or no-cost Medi-Cal attorneys who can help.

Good luck! Survivor of Medi-Cal hell

Urologist who accepts Medicaid for Paralyzed Friend

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