Screwed!

As I wend my way through the process of obtaining Medicaid, I have found that money you do not get is still counted against you. The money is paid to the government or to providers, but that money is still counted against YOUR income and counted AS income. Those few dollars often can knock you out of the system though the amounts to do not come to you nor are you allowed to spend that amount. Basically, you are screwed even before you begin.

How do I know? I spoke with a state representative and she knew more than I did and do about my own finances.

Case in point, I get only $1114 a month from SSI. The details of my pittance allow me to receive a whole $16 a month for food stamps (SNAP) and that is only because I got a raise this month of $1. My food stamp benefits totaled $15 a month out of the $119.50 allotted to senior citizens like me, but according to the State of Ohio, all I get is $15 a month, or rather $16 a month with the hefty $1 raise in my benefits. Hooray me!?

According to their files and the facts on my income, I get $1458 a month from SSI (social security income). There is an added $358.30 taken out of my SSI, leaving me with the $1114 a month that I actually get from SSI. The $358.30 goes to pay the part B of my SSI, money that is not given to me. The money is listed as going to Part B of my social security, the funds that have been collected from me since I began working over 50 years ago. That is money that I paid into social security and that money that I paid in goes to pay for Part B benefits and does not come to me, but it is still money the state of Ohio considers as money that is mine in the accounting of my income, money I actually receive, but not part of the $1114 I receive in the money that is deposited to my bank account, money I do not befit from and money that is counted as part of my income. Who knows whether or not that $358.30 is actually sent to me; it goes to the doctors that treat me -- of which I have yet to benefit from or have in my hands. Yet it is still monies that the state of Ohio counts as my income and that counts against me when the state of Ohio tallies up my funds.

Is there any wonder people cheat on their taxes if this is the way their income is totaled up?

The state of Ohio, in fact, every state in the Union does business in the same way and the people who

get it in the neck are the people applying for assistance, like Medicaid, food stamps, and benefits for the dependents or the person who is ill and suffering, hoping for their share of the socialism pie that was promised to them when they go to file for their benefits.

Benefits? It looks to me like they are doing what they always do -- screwing the very people who need their assistance. It is no wonder there are Welfare cheats. It is looking more and more that the people who cheat are the people trying to get around the state representatives, caseworkers, who are supposed to help the needy and the destitute, and the poor, ailing, and/or senior citizens who are doing their best to find ways around the black and white numbers that are used to decide who is and who is not eligible for assistance. These caseworkers are drones totaling up the numbers, drones who do not have the empathy beyond what is written down. There is no way for the poor people who go to them for assistance have any chance to get what they were promised and what they expect . . . unless they cheat the system in order for the system to treat whoever applies like living, breathing people who are actually in dire straits.

No wonder there are so many people cheating the system. If only I could figure out what I need to do to get past their bottom line mentality to the people who would actually help if they did not have to follow their bottom-line mentality.

I am not trying to cheat the system, but I am caught in that limbo between what the numbers say and what is actually the truth. I am caught between a rock and a hard place and will end up with the short end of the stick they are beating me with. Remember, all I receive is $15 a month for food, or rather $16 as of October 1, 2019 now that I have been given a whole dollar more for food. Good thing I can save up a couple of months of the pittance they throw me in order to buy sufficient food to get by on. At least that works in my favor since I am doing my best to lose weight. I've lost over 200 pounds in the past 2-1/2 years. At least less food for me means I will continue to lose weight. I would prefer to make up a real grocery list instead of skimping on the list, eking out the food I do have each month since I cannot rely on the food stamp allowance ($16 a month) and I also cannot rely on the Meals on Wheels I get once a day. At least I qualify for that -- as long as I respond when they show up at the door. My phone does not connect to the board in the entryway because my phone is not the type that is able to be hooked up to the board. I didn't know that when I bought the phone. I should have read the small print and asked questions of the service that sold the phone to me. I chose a phone I could afford, an android phone, but then I should have gotten the full price phone (costing hundreds of dollars, but then again I am on a limited SSI income and cannot afford a full-price phone.)

I have what I have and I keep an eye on the television that shows me who arrives in the entryway downstairs so I can either call them to come up the stairs or go down in the elevator and meet them at the door before they go away. Luckily, the man across the hall from me also gets his meals from MOW (Meals on Wheels) and they often call him because he has a phone that hooks up the entryway board and he can buzz them through the downstairs door.

My sisters keep telling me I should have thought about this and planned for it years ago. I did not know the future and did not know that the job I did for decades would not pan out nor would I end up here back in my home state destitute, on SSI, and broke. I signed up for retirement, but have not yet reached the age of retirement, though I am still out of a job after over 30 years of transcribing doctors' reports, radiation reports, surgeries, etc.

Maybe I should have planned better. I thought I had planned better, but it is anyone's guess whether or not all the money I paid out in 401K plans will pay off for me -- or if I will be still out of luck and out of funds. I am stuck -- and stuck good. If only I had been able to count on what I paid into, I might not be where I am now.

I studied. I learned. I worked. I am still stuck and have no idea of the 401Ks will be added to my limited income. More than likely, I will be still out of luck and, like the people in Kentucky who paid into their retirement pension funds and found out the state of Kentucky used their funds to pay for the roads and the other plans that did not get voted in when those issues went on the ballot; their retirement plans were short-circuited by being used to pay for the roads and the levies the mayors, state senators, and state representatives allocated to pay for the people who paid into those retirement plans when those people voted against the levies, roads, etc. The people who paid into their retirement funds found out that their retirement was not going to happen because Kentucky took their money and paid for what the people would not and did not vote for. It is rather like getting your tail caught in the door when it shuts behind them, catching their tails (and their retirements) in the door. It hurts and it hurts in the end.

So much for good government. It is rather like having some corporate raider buying up the liquidity of a retirement plan and leaving the people who counted on the retirement when the people were ready to retire. At least someone -- a fat cat corporate raider -- will get the benefit of their hard work, but it will not be the people who paid into the retirement fund in the first place.

If the state used the retirement funds to keep the roads safe and the levies paid up, at least we can rest assured that someone -- like the sate or some fat cat corporate raider -- would be able to live well on their hard work, their sweat, and their blood and tears.

It is just like finding out that you have been sold down the river and there is no paddle in sight. If

their retirement funds are gone at least the hard-working people will be able to get the best care their hard-working doctors can provide for them -- as long as socialism can take money from the rich to spread among the poor -- or better yet, cancer will get them in the end. When they die, at least their family will grieve for them and miss them. As long as they are dead, their toil is over and their beneficiaries will benefit -- if there is anything left.

That is all. Disperse.