Part D hilarity

I've started thinking of any mail I receive from the government as a form of comedy. Farce, mostly. I don't take phone calls yet, since I haven't mastered speaking with the trach, so luckily I've had help with the live comedy routine.

Medicare People (whoever they are) called in April and early May insisting I join Medicare Part D, the prescription drug coverage plan. Their calls were really pushy solicitation urging me to commit before the May 15 deadline. My father, who took those calls, informed them that my private insurance has better coverage and I wasn't interested. Basically, they didn't accept no and after repeated calls they said I was automatically signed up, which it seems is the policy for those individuals meeting certain criteria of which I'm not quite clear.

Upon hearing I was automatically enrolled, my father again told the Medicare Person (rarely the same Person twice, of course) I didn't want Part D and especially didn't want enrollment in the program to jeopardize my private coverage. This is when they suddenly claimed I had signed some document last October for joining Part D. Now, honestly, I've had a lot going on since then so I don't remember signing or not signing anything particular, but knowing myself and the fact that I wasn't using any prescription drugs in October it's unlikely I decided to sign (and mail back?) some official document about it.

It's kind of creepy that this document was mentioned so late in their hard sell project though, right? Right as the May 15 deadline was to come.

That call ended with my father again insisting I didn't want Part D and that we would appreciate seeing this document I can't remember. It was on May 15 that I received the notice from Medicare that I wasn't enrolled (or had chosen to disenroll), so that last Medicare Person had apparently given up on coercion and let me opt out as I wished. Meanwhile, the news was filled with seniors who couldn't get the assistance they needed from these People in choosing a plan. Some were busy with me.

On May 18, I received two letters from a private group about my Part D plan with them. The first was to congratulate and welcome me to the plan. The second was to acknowledge I was no longer on their plan because I decided to leave.

On May 25, I got my laminated membership card for the private group plan I was officially disenrolled from.

So, I really have no idea. I haven't called to pursue because it didn't seem urgent to me. Whichever status is mine, it turns out no one can really tell what will save me money and what will cost more. The prescriptions I currently need are not all covered by the plan, of course. Besides, calculating several (OK, many) hundred dollars in prescriptions is small potatoes compared to the circling bills for four months in three different hospitals under rather intensive care, separated by an ambulance and a helicopter ride. (Just for fun, guess how much that latter trip cost.)

It's unlikely this will remain pure comedy, I suppose. And I'll pursue it responsibly in time. We'll see if I'm still laughing then.

Update on 6/17/06: I received a huge packet in the mail today from the company Medicare chose for me, but it's dated May 5.