Today's Update

We had a really quiet weekend, thanks in part to some rather nasty weather. Friday we had freezing rain, then regular rain most of the afternoon, followed by more freezing and then snow. It was pretty chilly on Saturday – and since I didn't need to go outside for anything, I didn't. Hubby put out some ice melt leading up to the front porch for the mailman. We stayed inside Sunday as well, though sunshine cleared the ice off the street in front of the house.

We no longer get winter sunshine on the front yard or the driveway, so we'll have to hope for the warmer temps that are forecast for this week to melt the ice off. It's kind of a pain, but what do you do? Since the church extension was built next door, it blocks the winter afternoon sun from reaching us at all. We find ourselves turning on the living room lights by 2 or so in the afternoon.

It's really nice to have the freedom to stay inside when it's slick outside. The past several years, hubby would drive me to work and deposit me at the front door. He kept plenty of ice melt on our sidewalk so that I wouldn't slip. I've really appreciated that TLC, and I'm really glad he doesn't have to go that extra mile any longer.

My sad reality of staying away from slippery surfaces is all tied up in that wonderful Healthcare Marketplace. In early summer 2007, I had knee replacement surgery. Being the curious nerdy type that I am, I kept track of the total billed cost of every phase of the pre-surgery, surgery, and rehab services. Once I had all those insurance EOB's in hand, made a list of everything and hit the “=” button on the calculator...........it was somewhere north of $47,000!!!!

I was very grateful for having good insurance that negotiated much more reasonable amounts and then paid at least 80% of everything. Our bottom-line out of pocket amount was reasonable. But that billed amount was, to me, absolutely mind blowing.

I have a different health insurance now, complete with a pre-existing condition clause and my signature on a piece of paper saying I'm fully aware that they will cover no expenses that have anything to do with joint replacement, degenerative joint disease, or osteoarthritis. So, if I should slip on the ice and cause a dislocation of that knee, or fracture the kneecap, either of which would require a new replacement – we'd be up a financial creek without a paddle.

So I stay inside as much as possible when it's slick outside and try to take care of that pricey titanium joint. And give myself more gray hair trying to navigate the Healthcare Marketplace in hopes that I can find an affordable policy that doesn't have a pre-existing condition clause.

At 12:45 today, I got my call back from the Appeals people, checking on how I'd done with reapplying online (we'd agreed they would call between 1 and 3). I told them I got nowhere, and they offered to get a rep on the line with us (a 3-way call) so they could talk me through getting online and attempting to go to the application process again. At that point, I asked if we couldn't just process the current appeal and see where that goes. I don't think she expected that question, but she admitted that yes, we could do that. I told her I felt I'd spent enough time already with the website and that I would appreciate them just processing the appeal.

I'll keep everyone updated – if and when I ever hear from them again.

In the meantime, we're just nine days away from Christmas!! We'll have our family Christmas Sunday, and I'm looking forward to it. It's a wonderful time of the year!