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How I came to love the Affordable Healthcare Act
This post was written by wonderful FamilyWorks Volunteer, David Tate detailing his recent experience accessing healthcare.
I injured my back a couple of weeks ago, no, let’s start at the beginning, I volunteer on a regular basis at the FamilyWorks food bank and after I “tweaked” my back doing some chores at home it soon became apparent that I could not do the normal chores of lifting and moving the many boxes of food we get on a daily basis.
It was requested by FamilyWorks staff to get medical clearance to return to my volunteer post. I knew that getting a routine clearance from my VA medical center would take weeks because of the patient backlog and being unemployed I could not afford to pay for a visit to a walk-in clinic. All I wanted to do was go back to work.
I was operating under the assumption, as it turned out to be wrong, that since I had VA coverage I could not have “Obama Care”. That was Thursday, May 1, at 6 pm. I decided to get onto my computer and see if I could find some way to be seen that would not cost me any out of pocket money. It was during this search that I discovered that as a senior I was eligible for Medicaid, known as Apple Health Care in this state.
I logged onto the web site, filled out the form and submitted it. Within 1 minute I was notified that not only was I eligible, I was enrolled and it would cost me nothing. The next morning I went to the 45th Street Clinic with the sole goal of setting up an appointment to have my back examined and acquiring a medical release. They went online and verified I was enrolled, and told me that they had a cancellation and could see me right away.
That Friday morning, less than 24 hours from the time I was enrolled, I walked away with a medical release in hand, an appointment for a routine check-up, a referral to a dermatologist to have a growth on my right temple evaluated for removal and an appointment with a wound care specialist to treat a foot problem.
Now that is how it is supposed to work. I could not be more pleased with the outcome. It is now Monday evening and I had my first visit with the wound care specialist today and just received a call from the UW to set up an appointment with the dermatologist. Can you say “Happy Camper”.