Navigating the Health Care Maze!

So today, Life decided to play a little bit of a joke on my friend and I today... Ok, it's not just today, its been for the past several months. You see, neither she, nor I (or my husband) have health insurance. She, is on unemployment, after being laid off from her last job. My husband and I have not had any medical insurance for quite awhile.

Last year, we lost our business and of course, that meant losing our health insurance. While we could have paid for private insurance, we both have minor pre-existing conditions and did not have a budget that could support the major expense of private health care.

While it's not something we wanted to do, we know our only option was to go without.

In the past couple of months, my friend and I have confided in one another as our circumstances have been oddly similar and thus, we decided to navigate the black hole of health care together.

We both have on going prescriptions for various minor health issues. We are both attempting to get our individual businesses off the ground. Neither one of us have a primary care physician. But we both are college educated and find it quite frustrating and humorous each time we try to navigate the "system" to obtain basic well-being care.

So today, we decided to venture off and seek out some place where we can get a refill on our various Rx's.

On the weekend, you are very limited on where you can go. Both walk in clinics we found were located about 15 miles from the central city. That was the first laugh- especially since we both live within WALKING distance from the County ER /Hospital!

My friend, is currently with out a Drivers License/CA ID (that's another one of Life's Joke that was played on her a few weeks ago). As we left her house, she realized that she was over-drafted in her bank account. (Laugh Number 2)

Since my husband had been to this same clinic a couple of weeks prior, I knew she could write a check, so she bought her check book along... Laugh Number 3 comes along when we realize, while at the clinic, that she can't write a check because she doesn't have an ID!! UGHHH!!!

So, I quickly try to provide a solution of borrowing money from the business account because of course, we can now only pay cash and I didnt have much over the cost of my own visit with me! So I race up to the closest ATM and attempt to draw $100 when the ATM provides me Laugh Number 4!! Somehow it says the business account has a ZERO Balance! Are you kidding me??

All the way back (the whole 2 blocks) I giggled to myself, thinking "Really???"

It turned out that I had enough cash on me to pay the office vist fees for both of us. But it was definitely one of those afternoons that Life decided it needed a little entertainment!