More bureaucratic red tape

It's driving me mad; making me crazy!

I'm grabbing at my head about to pull my hair out and am close to losing my freaking mind over crap.

No, let me just call a spade a spade; it's not crap, it's BULLSHIT! I'm up to my lower lip in it.

I'm being clothes-lined by bureaucratic red tape. It's strangling me!

Am I PISSED OFF? Sure I am and I think rightfully so! Read on...

I'm dealing with Medicare and am not sure if I have coverage; but I have been paying into it for a year to the tune of approximately $96.00 a month automatically deducted from my monthly Social Security Disability payment. That's $1152.00 and I might not be covered. Or am I? Gary found out that the State of Ohio is also paying my monthly payment of $96.00 - a surprise to him and me and to Rita, our caseworker at Job and Family Services in Steubenville.

So let's do the math - a TOTAL OF $2304.00 is being paid into Medicare FOR ME and BY ME!

So there is some sort of double-dipping here and I can't go to a doctor and get the medical care I require due to all the uncertainty. I haven't been to a regular medical doctor, a rheumatologist, or pulmonary doctor for one year.

Before my Social Security Disability was approved I was receiving Medicaid which paid for everything medical that I needed - doctors, physical therapy, procedures (MRI, mammograms, colonoscopy, ER, hospitalizations, pulmonary care, sleep studies, etc. and prescriptions). You name it, it was paid for and there were no co-pays, no spend-downs, no deductibles - no worries!

MEDICAID IS UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE reserved for the poor and primarily for those who have no or very little monthly income and, in my case, waiting for Social Security Disability. Medicaid wasn't easy for me to get. Caseworkers are unwilling to divulge that it and many other benefits are available - that's just too much paperwork.

Many of the homeless who are waiting for their disability benefits are not aware they are eligible for disability cash assistance ($115.00 per month in Ohio), food stamps ($162.00 maximum benefit per person per month in Ohio) and Medicaid insurance. Many homeless do not have proper identification to get the benefits they deserve.

Many are misinformed by their caseworkers, as I was, but I fought - it was the third caseworker (in Cleveland) who put forth the effort in getting me my benefits. She got me back benefits too! By listening to me and putting forth an effort she found my original appointment information in the system. That appointment was from before I became homeless. I was unable to get back because the location where I applied was in a different part of town - I was without money for bus fare. End result was back payments totaling close to $700.00.

One thing this caseworker told me was that there are plenty of benefits available for the poor and homeless but, unless the applicant requests help from a specific program, caseworkers are not permitted to divulge information to the client.

The smokescreen in trying to get benefits is thick. Many of the poor and homeless accept "no you are not eligible" and give up; don't put up a fight. Many are sick and getting sicker; no energy to fight the system while health is failing.

Homelessness affects one's health - it ages a person cutting years off a person's life. I see how badly I look every time I look in the mirror - I look awful and I feel worse every day. The stress is killing me!

NEWSFLASH: 11:30 a. m. Monday - Rita from the Steubenville office of Jefferson County Department of Job and Family Services just called. She took the time to delve further into my file and found out that the State of Ohio is not paying my Medicare premium as previously reported. Oh, what should I believe anymore?

I do appreciate Rita though; she is kind and wishes she could do more to help but her hands are tied too. Benefits are determined by income and she has to go by the guidelines imposed by government.

I just opened my mail from Job and Family Services. Now it's in writing that I was denied for State of Ohio paid "QUALIFIED MEDICARE BENEFICIARY (QMB)" Reason: INCOME REPORTED EXCEEDS THE PROGRAM ELIGIBILITY STANDARDS. We based this action on OHIO ADMINISTRATIVE CODE, Rule 07431."

Okay, it's in writing and HELL I KNEW THIS SO WHY ALL THE CONFUSION?

Poverty is by design; it's control over the masses, the gigantic thumb pushing forcefully down on the poor holding them there, making people sick-keeping them sick. It's a vicious cycle; the dog chases its tail and will never get hold of it.

In May, Social Security Disability and SSI recipients will get a one time payment of $250.00 in addition to the monthly benefit check. Food stamp recipients will receive an additional 13% in allotment per month (which boils down to an additional box of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese in the shopping cart). WOW, HOW GENEROUS!

Brian Davis, Executive Director of the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless, feels that "The Obama Administration championed the extra $250 that everyone on disability will be receiving in the next month. Some might think that this is a positive, but I view it more as an insult and results in a lowering of their grade. I mean, these individuals have to figure out how to live on a small amount of money, and now the government is sending them a few coins to go out and spend. How about an increase in the disability check every month so that these Americans are not doomed to poverty for the rest of their lives?"

I am in total agreement with Mr. Davis!

Sure Gary and I are both eligible for that extra $250.00 and are looking forward to that measly one time payment. But we both have a major fight on our hands and that is to see to it that we have more than adequate health care coverage, to be able to get medical treatment and our prescriptions with out having doctors offices calling us and canceling our appointments because we are not in the system.

I have some phone calls to make and will be on the phone for hours trying to get this Medicare issue resolved. My prescription coverage was dropped because I signed up for a PPO rather than an HMO so the state won't pay for my prescription coverage.

When that extra $250.00 comes I might have to give my neighbor a few bucks of it so she can pick up a case of industrial strength butt lube with aloe for me at Cosco.

The fight continues for Gary and me as our health is dramatically failing!

And yes - I'm rather punchy at the moment!

In preparation of offending you...

...please pardon me while I vent

I remember several years ago 'Jungle Lips' (his street name) submitted a poem that was published in "The Homeless Grapevine". One FOUR LETTER WORD in the title of his poem outraged some of the stand operators at Cleveland's West Side Market so much that they threatened action not to permit the sale of "The Homeless Grapevine" on the property, a violation of the Fifth Amendment of The Constitution. Also, the West Side Market is publicly owned and the newspaper vendors have permission to sell the paper on the property.

The news stand at West Side sells "Playboy" and "Hustler". "The Free Times" with it's respectable investigative reports on Cleveland and regional corruption isn't banned because of the ads for sex phone services. Neither is "Scene" but a few vendors had their noses bent out of shape over a word in a poem that they were afraid that some adolescent might see.

Henry Koerner was one of my painting instructors at The Art Institute of Pittsburgh and if anyone enjoyed FOUR LETTER WORDS it definitely was Henry. Being a native of Austria, American (English) profanity was hysterically funny to him because, in his home language THOSE FOUR LETTER WORDS didn't translate; had no meaning. Henry used them proficiently, keeping the class in stitches for 6 hours. He was everyone's favorite teacher; outrageous, eccentric and pure genius. And I am certain John Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, Spain's Don Juan, Julie Harris among others heard a few F-BOMBS when they were sitting for him for the "Time" magazine covers.

So, keeping this one 'offensive' word in mind; doubting that anyone under the age of consent would ever read my blog (they probably have said THE FOUR LETTER WORD more than three times in any one sentence anyway) and knowing that a majority of people in my age bracket (give or take a decade either way) have seen George Carlin LIVE and own at least one Cheech and Chong album I think everyone can handle THAT FOUR LETTER WORD.

Well, Gary and I have had a bad week too dealing with 'do we or don't we have adequate Medicare coverage' - if we have any at all. We aren't sure and neither is Medicare!

Jungle Lips aimed his frustrations at 'The World'. Whoever wrote this on one of the benches at the RTA Eastbound side at the Tower City station just specified Everybody. I guess if the Rapid is coming and there are security cameras pointed at you, why elaborate?

I have neither the time or the energy to list all of my month's worth of frustrations with the system (and those telemarketing calls too) so I guess the following photo expresses my sentiments towards everyone involved including the manufacturer of all the red tape.

If you care to comment with your own specific list, feel free to do so. Just remember tho' YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

Photo by Cindy Miller 2007

The isolation of leaving behind homelessness...

...and why some return to the streets.

When you become homeless you exchange one community for another.

The community you leave is your neighborhood - once stable housing; the people next door, the people across the street. You might wave to them everyday; they might wave back.

Life in the neighborhood isn't like it was years ago. Back then you knew your neighbors quite well. Neighbors were your extended family. When I was a kid, you hoped that your neighbor didn't see you doing something your parents told you not to do. Believe me, they knew what you were allowed and not allowed to do and they had your parents' blessing to reprimand you for it. If that wasn't enough, you knew you were going to "get it" from Mom or Dad too!

Neighbors were there to help. Neighbors watched out for one another.

Nowadays everyone is too busy to socialize. Mostly, you don't even know your neighbor's name.

The homeless have a community too; much like how life was in the neighborhood back before everyone was too busy to know one another. In the homeless community you make new friends, you see each other on the street, enjoy great conversation, you know each other's names and you help one another too. Want to find a meal site? Where to get free stuff? Ask a homeless person.

Things soon change once you get placed into housing. Sure you now have a place to call your own - if vouchers are available you get furniture, perhaps a TV, cookware - all the necessities.

Most likely, your rent payments are subsidized; based on income and your utilities are included. But with this good thing that you have received; that you have waited for to better your life. Getting into housing may mean, for some, isolation from the community that you've become accustomed to.

I faced this isolation like so many others leaving homelessness for that subsidized apartment.

What many don't know is that the disabled can get into housing quickly - for me it was 6 or 7 months.

The problems that the disabled face when getting into housing:

• The housing may not be near stores, especially the supermarkets. You have food stamps but any financial assistance such as state disability ($115 mo. in Ohio) or SSI/SSDI may not have come through for you yet. No money means no way to get to the stores. Now you are house bound; isolated. What makes matters worse is that you don't have a phone either.
  
• Once you are placed into housing you are off your caseworker's books. There is no follow up; no additional help - they have washed their hands of you. If they are a good caseworker, they have hooked you up with services but more than likely they haven't.
• You might not have been placed into a good, safe building - just a building that will accept you and doesn't care about your credit rating. Having people knocking on your doors 24/7 wanting something is not fun (they aren't the disabled formerly homeless - they are crackheads!). Walking down 12 flights of stairs because the elevators haven't run for a week isn't fun either! And it's not a good idea to leave your apartment after 9 p.m.; you might be stabbed, robbed or raped in a stairwell or elevator. Zip code 44114 is much safer; despite the 130 plus sex offenders in that neighborhood.

What all this boils down to is why the formerly homeless return to the streets.

The Homeless Guy: Mile Stone
The above link is to Kevin Barbieux, The Homeless Guy who offers more insight about getting an apartment and his struggles with living there. I suggest his blog - bookmark it. It's a good read.