Guys, I really need help please.

So I got a letter in the mail on Saturday saying that I am being kicked off of my Medicaid on July 31st. I feel like I have worked really hard for the stability that I do have and now the rug is being pulled out from under me. I don't have a therapist or a psychiatrist, and now it's just going to be that much harder to see my nurse practitioner who writes prescriptions for my bipolar medication and my birth control.

My plans right now are to try to get an appointment with my nurse practitioner before the 31st to talk with her about weaning me off my meds until I can reapply for insurance in November for next year.

I also decided that I am going to start using my calendar obsessively to get on a stricter schedule, like what time I go to sleep and wake up. I'm going to try to stay busier in the day until either school starts or I get an email from the company I do temp jobs for saying I've been assigned to another project.

Please, guys, any advice can help me. I don't want to lose my sanity again. My husband, my parents, and my friends don't deserve that and I don't want to put them through that again.

Just an idea, definitely not advice, but perhaps during your off-med period you could explore herbal options? Something for anxiety, something to help you sleep, something that lifts mood? Melatonin worked like a charm for my insomnia. You'd have to be careful though, and perhaps run it past your nurse first.

Keeping track of your sleep cycle is a great idea. That's usually the first place you start seeing a potential for mood change.

Another idea is to perhaps ask for constant, gentle feedback from your husband on your mood state, irritability, agitation, excitability and so forth.

I'm sorry you find yourself in this situation, it really isn't ideal. By the sound of it you have a support system in place. Lean on them for support and feedback, don't go through this alone.

You can apply for Obamacare if you were kicked off of Medicare. It doesn't matter what time of year it is, being kicked off of another insurance is a 'qualifying event'. I was on it for about a year, and I thank God that I did because I wound up being hospitalized twice. It would have been tens of thousands of dollars had I not had insurance.

Jupiter3 - It was Obamacare that I got my Medicaid through. My husband applied us both for Obamacare and the response was that we needed to go onto Medicaid. This has always been confusing to me, and seemingly to the front desk workers at the doctor's office I go to. Maybe we can apply again and see what they tell us now. I am willing to try just about anything right now.

Luctor - Yes, I have been thinking about over the counter remedies I can use instead of my medications. Melatonin usually works well for me (as long as I am not already manic and refuse to take them because I think they will taint my body lol), so I will probably look up how long I can safely take them and use them in place of my Seroquel. St. John's Wort I know will interact with my birth control and make it ineffective and the birth control will be the thing I try to save up for each month, so I will still need to look for something else to replace the Zoloft. Vitamin D seems to help too, so I will work harder at taking those everyday until I run out of them.

Dollar stores sell vitamins and some supplements and because of the low cost it is far easier to come up with small amounts of cash occasionally to buy them.

Oh, no! Good luck! Definitely look into Obamacare.

Yes...I have oboma care, it pays for everything.

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So I called my pharmacy and they said they bill for me through something called Health Advantage. I'm not sure if that is being cancelled or not.

My letter says Health Care Independence Program coverage is ending but it does reference a Medicaid ID #. Last time I went to the doctor's office, the front desk people said I have Medicaid.

So now I am really confused about what is ending and what isn't. My husband was on the phone all morning, but they just kept giving him another number to call or leaving him on hold because of an influx of calls. He finally just gave up. He says we'll go to the DHS office tomorrow, but he works tomorrow.

Now he's telling me to not let it bother me, but he and his mother who were the ones who had me put on these medications in the first place and it was me who had to let me body adjust to them for an entire year, not them. I'm not sure if I can take another year of adjustments, just to have everything turned upside down again at the end of the year.

How do I get a clear answer from somebody? If this is going to cost me more, how do I find out what the price is going to be, so I can start collecting cans or doing more work on MTurk or Swagbucks? I only have 11 days to deal with this though, so it is just utter ********. They could have at least given me 30 days notice.

I will check out the dollar store because last time I went to get the Vitamin D it was like $14. Which is not too bad, but dollar store prices will let me save more money.

IT sounds to me like maybe you have a medicaid HMO and that is ending. If that's the case you'll still have Medicaid, just without the HMO or with another one.

Medicaid can't just drop you, they'd have to give a reason. Did the letter say why? If your income is too high then they'd drop you but if things are the same then they really can't.

Your letter should have the name and phone number of your caseworker. You can call and ask them to explain and to tell you want they recommend you do next. My caseworker never answers the phone and isn't good about returning calls so I try to keep track of when I called and call again every week until she answers. I know she's very busy but it is rude and annoys me.

This state has a program that is from Obamacare that gives you help with prescriptions up to an income far above Medicaid levels. Another program that helps with meds is rxoutreach.com which offers a bunch of meds at really low prices. I used to get a 3 month supply for less than half of what a one month supply would have been without the discount. Xubex.com is the same type of thing; I never used it.

I have something called spenddown Medicaid meaning they know I'm on SSDI and don't qualify for Medicaid in full but if my expenses in any given month top some amount then they will jump in and cover anything over the amount that I make too much for straight medicaid. It helps a lot if there's surgery or an IP stay and I have a co-pay for that. You may want to ask about that.

If you are on name brand meds there are patient assistance programs that will give you meds free. You just go to the med's website and look for patient assistance program and it tells you what to do. If you don't meet the rules exactly don't worry; I have exemptions into 4 programs for a total of 5 meds, one of which alone is around $36,000 per year, completely free. My exemption is that I have Medicare but still can't afford the meds b/c my co-pay is so high on name brands and one or two exempt my income being a couple thousand dollars over their limit. They are very willing to work with you in my experience.

I hope that this works out that you just lost your HMO and not your whole Medicaid.

I really don't know what you should do. I just wanted to give you a hug and say THAT SUCKS. I hope it isn't true and works out somehow. If you can't get to your meds then like you said all you can do is try to sleep and avoid stress as much as humanly possible etc.

I just looked up your meds using Walmart Pharmacy with out prescription insurance.

Quetiapine 10.54 for 30 25mg Not sure how many you take a day.

Sertraline 11.20 for 30 100mg Again not sure of your dosage

Both companies also offer patience assistance programs if your unable to afford them.

I hope you can find a solution and not have to go off your medications.

I'm sorry you are going through this. I lost my insurance for a short time last year and I know the panic is causes.

It sounds like you've been given great advise here. I hope it's useful for you.

Best of luck.

Okay, so after making some more calls, I think we figured out that I'll still have the Health Advantage, so there won't be any changes in my medicine copays, thankfully. The Medicaid is what covers my doctor's visits and that is supposedly what's being dropped.

I also just now figured out where they were getting the figures for my monthly household income being too high. At first when I looked through my bank statements I was thinking that I never even got halfway close to the number they said in a single month, but now that I'm looking, there was a time period within a month from June 19th - July 17th when I did hit that number because I had two temp jobs, one that ended June 17th and one that started on the 24th and went to July 9th. So if the pay was delayed a week, I would have gotten all that money during that time period. But if you divided up how much I made all year by seven months, it would only come out to me making a third of the number they quoted, so I wish they would go by that. The money I got is already spent on restocking the house from the months we didn’t have much money, or set aside to rent and bills that are coming up soon.

But I think it’s okay because with the refills I have left right now, as long as my Health Advantage is still there, I should be able to last until September or October before having to see my NP again. And hopefully my company will call me back to work on another project before then.

BeyondtheRainbow, thanks so much for your explanation. That’s actually a lot more informative and helpful than anything I got all day. Everyone we talked to on the phone seemed about as confused as my husband and I were/are. I’m thinking round two tomorrow, I will look through my letters and see if they specify a caseworker because I would really still like to know what is covered and what isn’t in terms of hospitals and pdocs and therapists just for the peace of mind because that is something that I’ve never really understood. It even got to the point where a nasty bill collector bullied me into making a payment on a hospital bill that had already been covered by Obamacare, but I couldn’t make an argument to him because I did not understand specifically what amount was covered (I just knew I never ever had to pay 80% or whatever he was conning me into believing that I was supposed to pay. I got my payment refunded just about a month or two ago though, so I guess I got the last laugh on that.)
~Christina, thanks a bunch for looking that up for me. That makes me so relieved, that even if I lost the Health Advantage too, I could switch pharmacies to Walmart and still manage those costs somehow. The last time I paid full price for medicine, it was a week’s supply of antibiotics for an eye infection that was around $75, so I was thinking it was going to be in that range or higher.

I am feeling so much better about this situation than I did this morning, so thanks for your help and support everyone. It is still a challenge for me to get everything sorted out, but at least now I am not freaking out that the medicine in the cabinet is the last medicine that I am going to be able to get this year.

My Medicaid paperwork lists my casework and her number with extension on the top of the first page of everything they send.

I've been told that going to Medicaid in person can be more effective than phone calls.

MAKE them explain things in a satisfactory manner. Unless you had a renewal and sent in paperwork in the time that your income was higher they shouldn't have a way to know that and it should be based on your yearly income, not month to month. It's very hard but do not let them hang up or walk out until they answer all of your questions. Write them down beforehand and check them off as you go. I've learned this the hard way, both caseworkers I've had in the county have been rude, abrupt and not wanted to answer questions. My last county they were so nice. I'm sure it is understaffing but wow. Right now mine is almost at the point that I'll have to totally re-apply for the simple reason that my old caseworker didn't upgrade my address when requested a year ago. I haven't gotten them to say whether they owe money for my surgery a year ago (pretty certain they do). Etc. You caseworker may seem to not know much (mine sometimes plays like she doesn't) but insisting on answers will usually get them so that you leave them alone. Messages that say "I'll call again on Thursday" also get better results.

Still consider checking rxoutreach. Walmart has good prices but I've gotten even lower (lower than anywhere and I checked around b/c I was on one med that was pretty expensive) prices through them. I checked I guess. Seroquel is $25 for 3 months supply and so is sertaline so better than Walmart. The trick with them is they don't have every med but yours are covered. They saved my butt when I was uninsured. A med I must take for my asthma was going to cost I think $130/month or something; it lowered it to $50/3 months.

Keep fighting! I know it's hard but it's worth it.

I'm glad that you're going to still be able to get your meds, Espurr. I know that Arkansas has a one-of-a-kind system for the way they use the "Obamacare" money they get from the federal government, so I'm guessing it's even more complicated than usual.

When we Americans have "Oh ****" threads like this about suddenly losing our health coverage, I can't help but wonder what people from countries with single-payer health coverage systems think.

Community mental health, contact the drug companies for assistance, some big box type of stores offer certain medications at a huge discount, or paying cash. Both of the medications you have listed (quetiapine, sertraline) are generics and shouldn't be too terribly expensive. Try to find an independent pharmacy that might work with you. I am a pharmacy tech at a small retail pharmacy and my pharmacist often helps people in strained situations. Potentially many calls to make or places to visit, but if you can have help with your medication coverage I'd say it's worth trying! The worst they can say is no. Good luck!

THIS. If you have Meijer, Kroger, Costco, etc., look into them, as well. Many of the big box places will also offer to match prices from other pharmacies.

I'm not familiar with the laws in your country but I just wanted to say hang in there!

And I'm sorry that you've found yourself in this situation

Only thing I hate about obamacare(medicaid/medi-cal) at least is that the psychiatrists are not good. I see mine once a month we talk for about 5 minutes or less and im out. They don't listen because they have so many patients.