In which there is dismay and confusion

[rolanni]

It's being something of a zoo this week here at the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory.

On Monday, we did a lovely Skype interview with John Mierau at Patreon, which will be going up on youtube, in the fullness of time.  We'll let y'all know when it's available.

Today, the generator guy came and scoped out The Situation.  He was supposed to have come by on Tuesday, but. . .didn't.  I'm not sure what's with that, but I remember a wise man once told me that contractors run on their own time.  Anyhow, he promises an estimate this week, so that's in process.

In and around these generally benign events, I have been having. . .discussions, as in multiple hour-long phone calls with the ACA and the local health insurer, Community Health Options. Which has officially been No Fun At All.

First, I got a phone call from the ACA on Monday morning, wherein I was informed that, since I had submitted a Change of Income, the person making my new eligibility determination noticed that I had not "attested to" last year's income.  I needed to call a representative, she said, and do that.  Any rep who answered the phone would be able to do that.

. . .Now, I actually know better than this, because I had been for many years a secretary, and I am Very Aware that, when the instructions include a variation of, "Call this person, say this, and they will know exactly what you mean" -- they won't.  No one will know anything even approaching what I mean, and if I have not elicited Actual Hard Facts that bear directly on What This is Actually About from the person for whom I am making the call,  it will end up taking days to resolve this One Really Simple Thing.

With that said -- no, the rep who answered the phone on Tuesday at the ACA had no idea what "attesting" to last year's income was, nor did her supervisor.  Her supervisor, however, recalculated my eligibility, which was not what I wanted, at all.  I wrote a letter, explaining what had happened, and why, and logged into the ACA website to upload it -- only to find that, if the ACA isn't expecting to receive documentation from you?  There is no option to upload documents.

Unwisely, then, I tried to go into my (new) application and see if there wasn't something there. . .got twisted around and called the ACA back, hoping they'd bail me out.

The rep I spoke to this time also didn't know what "attesting" income was, and said that 2014's income was completely beside the point, this being 2015.  She also told me that the ACA representative who had handled my first policy change, back in July, when Steve went on Medicare, had just cut my Best Guess at Income for both of us in half, and had figured my monthly payment/subsidies from there, and that this was Utterly Wrong.

Apparently, we still count Steve's income, even though he's on Medicare and I'm only looking for a policy for myself, and that! amount! put me over all the subsidy limits, and -- long story short -- it appears that, because of this, my insurance has been canceled.  If it hasn't been canceled, I'll be in the happy position of having to pay something on the order of $2,000/month for health insurance, but I can't find the amount for certain, because Community Health Options only allows access to its plan descriptions and prices during Open Enrollment, which this is not.

Today, I was supposed to call CHO to find out if, in fact, my insurance is canceled, and -- if it has been, what do I do now? if it hasn't, how much will it cost to maintain the policy?

I did not make that phone call today; since I had lots of leftover frustration from yesterday to work with.  Today, I refined a scene that I'd written over the weekend, and then wrote a few more words in a forwarder direction.

Tomorrow, I will have to call CHO, and try to straighten this out, and, man, am I looking forward to that.  Not.

In the meantime, the nights are getting seriously chilly and the day-temps aren't really exerting themselves above the middish 70sF, so, yes, winter is coming.  And very possibly with bells on.

And, to pay you for your patience in allowing me to vent, have a look at this place -- a college of fools, just outside of Paris.  Here's the link.

Nap attack!

Comments

[badgermirlacca.livejournal.com]

And don't you wish we had a single-payer health system? Although nothing's perfect, there has GOT to be a better way than this.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Holy freaking ghod, don't I?

Good luck with all that.

[catherine ives (from livejournal.com)]

Several nap attacks might be useful.

[sharon murphy karpierz (from livejournal.com)]

Just look ar Veteran's benefits. If we had a single payer system, the hassel would be with getting medical services insstead of with getting insurance. This is the point where your tax/financial advisor should start getting creative. Have you ever thought of incorporating?

[badgermirlacca.livejournal.com]

Veteran's benefits are a mess, I agree. But I was a military dependent back before they decided to penalize people for wearing a uniform, and the problem was not with getting services. It was with oversight. You hear lots of anecdotal evidence about horror stories for the healthcare systems in Canada, Britain, and other places that have national health systems, but amazingly, all of them seem to have better health results than the US does.

How would incorporating effect getting insurance?

[margotinez.livejournal.com]

Just a stray thought. When refining a scene, or perhaps more especially when writing forwarder material, do you find your frustrations with the system and your overall mood influencing the direction your fiction takes? Just wondering. Hope it gets smoothed out tomorrow.

[sharon murphy karpierz (from livejournal.com)]

Not necessarily with getting insurance, but with managing income flow.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

I often find that revision is soothing, because it usually involves problems that I am perfectly competent to solve, and which do not depend on the capriciousness, or malice, or cluelessness of a third party which is not invested in the work.

As I found when writing Scout's Progress, the tenor of work is far more likely to affect me, than my mood is to affect the work.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Erm.

The publisher pays at the publisher's whim. There is no power on earth that *I* know of which would induce publishers to pay, oh, monthly, or even quarterly -- both of which would help income flow.

Incorporating only adds another layer of complexity, including increased accounting, which would certainly improve our accountant's income flow, while producing no benefit for the authors.

[sharon murphy karpierz (from livejournal.com)]

It would increase complexity without a doubt. It would assuredly increase the cost of your business accounting. It could ALSO even YOUR income by setting up a salary. The rest of the income would be in the corporation. It would not pass to you until you either took it out as salary or as a dividend, but all of the expenses would equally be in the corporation so that the years you have extra income, you buy new equipmemt or plan business travel . You would want to set up as a C corporation so that there was no passthrough....

If I have overstepped, I apologize. I just want to give you things to think about and discuss with your chosen preparer. If you would like more information on how this might help, I am willing to discuss it with you.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Sigh. Not overstepped so much as Made Assumptions.

SRM Publisher was incorporated, and I'm...pretty well familiar with the time and effort that was involved in keeping the books there, since it was my job and I was really, really bad at it.

Also, the assumption made by those (not just you) who say, "Incorporate!" like it's Magic Sauce, seems to be that we've been amassing mountains of money, which will be available to transfer to the corporation in order to allow the corporation to float us while payments come in, as they will. Some authors, indeed, have mountains of money, and they incorporate, pay all the minions they need, and -- good for them. What we have is mountains of debt, because we are not A-List writers who earn buckets of money, more like Solid B writers who do OK, but never really Achieved Our Potential, and because our day-jobs have typically been minimum wage, or commission, or just a squirt above minimum wage. We did manage to save what we thought was a Nice Downpayment for a house, only to have it wiped out by two very minor health episodes (having to pay the ACA back $12,000 in subsidies, on top of our regular taxes for guessing our income wrong, was just a bonus).

So, yes, we've thought about incorporation, thanks.

[attilathepbnun.livejournal.com]

I join in the wishes for you to experience a better tomorrow!
*offers cookies*

[gerald heaton (from livejournal.com)]

At the other end of ACAs bumpf, one of my clients can't get the BCBS insurance through the ACA because THEY DON'T MAKE ENOUGH MONEY!!!! In fact they can't get any insurance period.

Now I thought the ACA was meant for people who did not have insurance, or couldn't afford the insurance plans offered. Silly, silly me.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

This I actually know something about.

As originally constituted, before Congress got its fingers in the pie, and made it so their buddies the insurance companies could profit from this thing, and! before it was decreed that individual states could refuse to serve the best needs of their citizens by refusing to set up a state marketplace. . .

Before all that, the rule was, if an applicant's income fell below $X, they would automatically be enrolled in Medicaid.

However! Here in Maine (for instance), the governor not only did not set up a state health marketplace, he cut the rolls of "deadbeats" on Medicaid, and lowered the income limits for eligibility.

This produced a gap into which a bunch of people fell. The system was supposed to have taken care of those people, but the system was sabotaged.