written July 1, 2014
I told my boss that I’d be returning to work next week. Mostly because I thought my health insurance wasn’t going to be renewed next year. One of the downsides of being in a union – to maintain my health insurance, I have to work a minimum of 400 hours every 6 months. Well this “qualifying period” that we’re in now goes until Thanksgiving and started right after I went to the hospital with renal failure. I logged on to the MPI website last week only to discover I’ve only banked 37 hours towards my next 6-month coverage period. Uh oh. I figured I needed to work 9 more weeks to make sure I have insurance through July of 2015. Since Nicole’s been approved as a living donor, we’re planning the surgery for October, which means I’ll be out of work until at least January. I called the MPI Health Plan today and it turns out I have more than 400 hours in the bank, so I can actually not work for the rest of the year. And better yet, if I’m on a medical disability (I am), they’ll still accrue 40 hours a week for every week I’m on disability.
Now I’m stuck. The current job I’m returning to next week is only 4 more weeks. Then I would probably have 2 weeks off and start another show that I’d have to leave early to have the surgery. Truth is, I don’t really want to go back to work. For one thing, my disability claim has yet to be approved. So we’re still struggling along trying to live on one income. If it takes another two or three weeks to get money from the state, it will be a large initial payment, but how long will it take to actually get the money? If I go back to work, I’ll have a check the following week. And every week I work, I’ll get another check.
On the other hand, if it’s taking this long to get approved for disability, would it be foolish of me to go back to work for 4 weeks and then have to reapply and just go through all this hell once again? I don’t understand why, in the 21st century, the state of California doesn’t have an easier, less bureaucratic and more efficient system for handling all the residents who claim unemployment or disability. No point in complaining about it – as an individual I can definitely do nothing to make it better. I’m sure it has to do with the fact that California hasn’t had any money for years. No money means no way to pay for improvements to infrastructure.
I’ll have to make a decision this week. Go to work, or just stay on disability, assuming they’ll approve my claim. Why can’t all the facts be readily available when you need to make a decision? Everything would be so much easier if I had the answers to pertinent questions before I had to make the decision. Although like my old boss at Fox used to say, not making a decision is still making a decision. A decision to sit back and do nothing. Not really my way of rolling, but hey. I guess it’s always option 3.