Going My Way?

Even though we are in the really, really hot months here in Arizona, if it’s early enough in the morning, I still try to stand in front of my apartment building so it’s easy for the drivers to spot me. This particular morning was no exception. My street was quiet; it was too early for everyone to be showing up at the courthouse across the road. There’s hardly any passing traffic at this time of morning, maybe a car every 4 minutes. So imagine my surprise when my driver pulls into my driveway right in front of me and then keeps going towards the back of the building. I started gesturing. He got to the second speed bump and finally must have seen me because he started backing up. The driveway isn’t terribly spacious so I flattened myself against the wall, just in case he was tempted to make me into a pancake. Reverse was not his forte.

My driver snarled my name at me. I agreed that I was who he was looking for. He asked me where I was headed, and I told him I was going to get tortured by the dentist. (That turned out to be spot-on.) We had a brief discussion about me getting my dental insurance through Costco. My driver said his dental was through his Medicare supplement. It took me a little bit to figure out, but I finally put it together that he was under the age of 65 and had Medicare Advantage set up with a supplement that also covered dental. This might be ideal for some, especially if you have very specific, finite issues – say, diabetes, small fiber neuropathy, and had a spinal cord stimulator implanted in your spine – but would do someone like me no good because I have rare diseases and often have to go to specialized and specific doctors, and they could be located anywhere in the U.S.. Arizona does not allow any supplements for anyone under the age of 65 for traditional Medicare, so setting it up for Medicare Advantage costs a fortune if you have to go into the doctor as often as I do, which is between 5 and 15 times a month. I got my policy while living in another state and I can’t miss a payment for the next 22 years. Why stress over the supplements? Because Medicare only covers hospital stays, really. Everything else is the job of the supplement.

I asked my driver what he did for fun. He told me that he played a game, and he named it, but since I wasn’t familiar my brain didn’t hang onto it. But it has something to do with zombies and the apocalypse. It’s set in 2071, and I think that people have superpowers, and they are supposed to be killing the zombies, or something like that. I asked him how much or often he drives, and he said that it really depends on how much his body can handle. Some disabled folks are allowed and able to work for a certain number of hours a month while also retaining their pay and health insurance, which is incredibly helpful. The gig jobs also make a world of difference, because sometimes we don’t know if we’re going to have energy at 7 in the morning, or 11 at night.