The Middle Class Blahhhs

I've come to the conclusion that I despise being "middle class".  I obviously don't want to be "lower class" so I guess that leaves me wanting to fall into the "upper echelon category" also known as the "upper class".

The thing is I don't fit any other mold then middle class.  I'm not snooty, and I'm not uneducated or unmotivated.  I'm just a hard working person who worked myself through college and worked until my daughter was born 5 years ago.  I was born and raised to a family that was middle class.  My Dad worked very hard to keep things financially stable and my Mom stayed at home to make sure we kids felt safe and secure.  My parents sacrificed a lot to make sure their four kids got the best educations and gave us all the right platform for which we can build success from.  By all accounts we are all "successful", but not because we managed to buck a system or "use" the system to our advantage.  Our success came from hard work - period!

I know so many people that are like me, my husband and our respective families.  We're all trying to do the right things and make life that much easier for the next generation.  Not handing the next generation things, but instilling the proper motivation and drive for them to succeed on their own someday.  It has been this reason why being middle class (probably better stated on the upper end of middle class) was always the best place for me to be.

Now I'm seeing how the middle class is being persecuted by governmental regulations and being thwarted by the bottom feeding people who manage to "work the system" to their own advantage - and they have no regard for the fact that they are sucking from the hard working middle class who work hard to survive fair and square.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for helping the poor, because not all those who are "poor" deserve to be there.  Some people just have bad luck, no matter how hard they try to be successful.  I think years of being beaten down, can really make a person complacent too.  I do get all of that.  But we all know who I'm talking about, when I refer to the "bottom feeders who work the system to their advantage" - I don't need to say anymore.

Why am I on this social/economical rampage? Well ... let me tell you ... (you might want to get yourself a nice cup of coffee, beer, martini - whatever your poison is before settling down to read the rest of this as its long and bitchy) ...

I have a son who has a genetic disorder.  A rather rare genetic disorder, 1/1000 or 1/2000 people are diagnosed with it depending on what statistical data you look at.  My son's disorder is called Noonan Syndrome.  He was fortunately/unfortunately (depending on how you want to look at it) diagnosed at the age of 5-6 months.  When we were told of his "syndrome" we pretty much had to strap our seat belts on tight and try and predict the ride we'd be taking because there really is no GPS that will pinpoint with accuracy what we would or will face down this road.  We had no idea what type of medical and developmental issues my son was going to have.  Noonan Syndrome is just so complex that even the doctors don't know everything there is to know about this crazy gene mutation.  They have some good ideas what possibly to expect, but they'll never know for sure how each person will be affected.  For some the effects are so slight that they live decades before knowing they were/are living with this syndrome.  Some have it mild and life is relatively "normal" despite some odd medical or developmental issues.  Then there are some people who have so many medical and developmental issues it's heartbreaking.  One thing is for sure though, the syndrome will never ever go away.  It will always be with the person who has it for the rest of their lives.

My son has a lot of medical issues, some we have know about since the beginning, some we are just learning about and I know there are some that will surface at some point down the road.  I try to be proactive to make sure I catch some of these issues early so we can attempt to "fix" them or make them less severe.  My son is only 3 years old and I think he has seen more doctor's in his short life than I have in my 44 year life.  He has a general practicing pediatrician, cardiologist, hematologist, gastroenterologist, immunologist/allergist, geneticist, otolaryngology (ENT), opthamologist, pulmonologist, urologist, and soon we will be adding the endocrinologist to his list of doctors.  That doesn't count the psychologist, dietician, occupational therapist he sees at the feeding clinic, nor the speech pathologist he'll be meeting with next week.

Fortunately, most of his issues are "under control" so visits are usually only once every 6 months to a year - or as an "as needed" basis.  But just looking at this long list of specialists, you get the picture that Noonans is pretty much a very comprehensive genetic disorder.  My son falls on the "mild" spectrum too.  We got lucky!

When we found out he had Noonan Syndrome, the county support system hooked me up with a program that will help with "medical" bills after our insurance has picked up what it can.  It's a very nice program and I feel so fortunate that our State allows such a program to be in place to help out financially with medical bills.  Because my son has a diagnosed genetic disorder, we were told that he is automatically accepted into this program for diagnostic purposes until he reaches the age of 18, then I think social security or disability kicks in, should he need it to.  "Treatment" medical coverage is dependent upon a families financial status.  My husband makes too much money so we have never been able to use this program for anything other than "diagnostic" purposes.  I was okay with that because, we do have insurance and we are financially stable by my standards, and well-off by the "State's standards".  I'm not greedy, I'm willing to take what they give and not complain.  (My philosophy back in 2009)

My son spent 19 days at the Cleveland Clinic in February of this year.  He had a "diagnostic" procedure and he had complications from this procedure.  This complication was caused by another underlying issue with his Noonan Syndrome that we had no idea he had.  Again, more diagnostic testing was done to determine this issue.  We felt okay about all of this financially, because we knew this "secondary" State funded insurance would pick up most of bills that our medical insurance wouldn't cover because of everything being "diagnostic" in nature.  Yesterday, we got a phone call from the billing department of the clinic telling us that we no longer have this State funded program.  In fact, we haven't had this program since September of 2009.  Apparently, we were supposed to renew our "coverage" every 3 months.  Something my "coordinator" never told me.  We never got anything in the mail, with the exception of a single piece of paper earlier this spring that was looking for our "financial" information from us.  It was to see if we were eligible for the "treatment" end of the program which we knew we were not eligible for and never completed.  I didn't complete the form, because it told me based on the previous year, if our financial status hadn't changing, then we still weren't eligible.  We are confused.  Why was I told when we first enrolled that my son was eligible for the State funded program until he's 18, yet I have to renew it every 90 days?  The Syndrome my son has "aint" going away ever, its with him for life.  So why do we have to renew him every 90 days for something that will stay with him throughout his life?  Bureaucracy at its best I suppose!

Yesterday, I was frustrated beyond belief and sobbing my little eyes out because we are sitting on a very large medical bill.  We get bills delivered daily in the mail and calls almost every day from the Clinic or its "collection agency" looking for payment.  We kept telling the bill collectors to forward them to the State funded program because it appeared the Clinic had omitted this step.  Or so we thought, because for some odd reason - some bills were being picked-up by the program and some were not.  Funny though, it was noted in the Clinic's computer that the State funded program had terminated in September, 2009, and not one person at the Clinic told us that our State Funded secondary insurance lapsed - they just kept calling and sending bills even after we asked them to submit them to this program.  Yesterday, I had to find out the hard way.

Now the million dollar question is ... will the State be kind enough to retroactive our "position" so that they will review and make payment on the open claims from earlier this year?  Claims that in my opinion, they should be responsible for because my son was already entered and accepted into the State Funded System in February 2009.  Why is it my fault that my coordinator misinformed me by not sharing with me that I needed to renew the "diagnostic" portion every 90 days?  Why didn't the State send out a notification that my son's coverage was going to lapse at least 10 days before it did, so we could do the necessary paperwork to keep him active?  I hate government workers because they are lazy asses!  Every lot of them - I have yet to meet a government worker that didn't complain about their job, or answer their bloody phone when you called them.

I'm beyond frustrated, I've become extremely bitter.  We pay State Taxes from the hard earned income my husband brings home.  I've paid State Taxes since I was 19 years old.  I've worked almost every month from the age of 19 until the age of 39 in the State of Ohio.  I'm finding it hard not to be bitter that bottom feeders with children with disabilities get to not only have their "diagnostic" medicals bills covered, but they also get "treatment" bills covered.  Not my child though!  Why?  Because we are middle class!

My son's genetic disorder is a fluke of nature.  Nothing I did or didn't do caused this gene mutation malfunction.  It just happened.  We didn't ask for this, yet we've been responsible hard working, tax paying human beings all our lives and I'm starting to think that we deserve to be like those "bottom feeding" citizens and my son should have full coverage both diagnostic and treatment.  We have health insurance because we pay a "shit load" of money every paycheck to have it.  So WHY can't my son have State funded coverage like those lazy ass people abusing the system get to have for their disabled or medically handicapped child?  Sad truth, we'd be better of financially, medically speaking, if we didn't have an income coming in.

Doesn't seem quite fair.  And it's all because we are Middle Class.