public assistance

You know, I was really surprised to see the difference in how you are treated when you are on public assistance. The kids' medical insurance is free because of our income. We go to Sacred Heart Hospital, and they have two doctor's offices-one for private insurance, and one for public assistance. I've seen the difference because I've used both offices. The same doctors work both offices but everything else is completely different. The private waiting room is nicely furnished, with plenty of toys and books. There are magazines for parents to read........you always have to wait but the length of time is completely different! In the public Ass. (ha) office there is one toy and no books, although they have posters on the wall advocating reading. The room is always crowded, there aren't enough seats. I walked to a doctor's appointment 8 months pregnant with two kids in tow, visibly out of breath, and there were no seats and not a single person would let me sit down. The secretaries are way too busy, you always have to wait to sign in, or wait to even talk to her because she's taking several phone calls. And the waiting! To see a doctor for less than five minutes requires about two hours in the doctor's office. This is not an exageration-we timed them when we were there every day for Timothy(jaundice). Apparently your time is not valuable when you don't have money. Try keeping 3 small children taken care of and entertained in a strange room with no toys or books for 3 hours. I'm sure there are some children who might stay sitting quietly for 2 hours, but mine are way too active for that!
So today I'm checking up on getting Timothy added to insurance. You have a month to do it. I had called 2 weeks ago and left a message with the info they needed, my name and phone number. My case worker never called back and I still hadn't received an insurance card for him. I called Friday with no answer(maybe the office was closed for Vet.'s day), and called again today. This time they answered and informed me that I had a new case-worker with a new phone number. Apparently the old caseworker didn't even have the same phone and no one bothered to give either one of them my message. So now I have a doctor's appt. tomorrow and no insurance for Timothy. I guess I'll have to reschedule. I never got a letter or a phone call telling me that I had a new caseworker. And the new lady acted as though she was doing me a huge favor by taking the info to add Timothy. With her accent she was hard to understand. It's very frustrating! Not everyone who needs help is lazy and worthless!