Health Insurance and Voicemail

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
This morning I found out that I was not granted an exception on my state health insurance application. Despite the fact that it would cost over a third of my husband's paycheck to insure me.
It took mass health over two months to qualify me and 2 weeks to cancel me. The worst part was talking to the representative today who said income didn't play a part in the decision, and that since I was married and my husband's employer offers insurance, I had to go through them.
"Now, if you were to obtain a divorce," she suggested, "and re-apply for Mass Health, we might be able to reconsider you."
Okay so....weighing my options. Gonna have to go with loyal and cute husband of five years instead of crack-pot and unreliable health insurance. What is wrong with this state!?
When I called back to see if we qualified for the Premium Assistance Program, they said no because the decision was not based on my husband's insurance, but rather on our income being too substantial to fit the restrictions. WHAT?
Someday when we move, I am going to write an open letter to Mass Health and post it on this site and it will not be pretty.
Mass Health.....
I found this news out on my way to a Le Leche Meeting. I called my husband and started crying and pulled the car over into where else...McDonalds...my rainy day haven. He said the obligatory, "Don't worry we'll work it out." line and I got off the phone and ordered some ice coffees. (Gonna have to start drinking ice coffee at home, it's my Achilles' Heel.) I look at my face in the rear view mirror and it's all red and puffy and cry-ish. I decide I will go home and tackle this insurance puzzle and skip the meeting.
While I'm sitting in the drive through though, I notice I have a voicemail. It's Janet, the Le Leche leader, she left me a message letting me know there was a meeting and said that she'd like to see me there. This was the first person in this town I've had more than a 5 minute conversation with that wasn't a paid professional.
I grab my coffee and haul A over to the library where the meeting is being held. I pull into the parking lot and dab concealer on over my puffy red face and I walk into the meeting 10 minutes late.
I think I must have either forgotten to rub the make up in, or still looked like I'd been bawling my eyes out because the room got all quiet when I walked in.
Not the best start, but I can't very well leave now.
I sit the car seat with sleeping Penny down next to me on the carpet and immediately people begin introducing themselves.
The woman next to me has an 11 week old, I take one look at Penny and one look at her baby and I start thinking..."Maybe I AM overfeeding her?" Smile.
Someone starts talking about how they have trouble getting sleep because their baby wakes up a couple of times a night to eat. Someone else says they are dealing with thrush. Someone else doesn't know how to keep mosquitoes away from her baby....
Could this be conversation? Real ...adult...conversation?
I forgot how much I missed talking to other women.
I mentally box up the health care debacle and quit obsessing about whether or not I remembered to rub in the make up on my face. And for the first time in weeks I feel like I've rejoined the human race.
I walk out of the meeting with the phone number of one of the moms with a baby close to Penny's age and a promise to get together soon.
Earlier this morning I thought I was going to fall apart. None of the insurance news has gotten better with all of my phone calls this afternoon, but it was so nice to have a break in the middle of the day.
I'm so glad Janet left a message.