In need of a personal assistant...

Okay, so I guess I really am a frazzled mom. Yesterday I got a letter from our state saying that I had not paid a single premium payment for Thomas' insurance last year! What?!? This must be a mistake, because how could I miss an entire YEAR of payments?!? So I went back to the old file cabinet, found all the old check books and looked through three of them that covered the time period for which I supposedly missed the payments. Sure enough, not a single payment was in there.

How did this happen? And how on Earth did we slip by with them still providing coverage? I mean, they actually paid out thousands of dollars toward his stroller co-pay ($2,000) and at least thirty days of therapy which wasn't covered by our primary insurance. I feel like such a heel. This insurance has saved us, without it we'd have to decide between orthotics, equipment, and thearpy for Thomas or our house payments. It has literally been our lifeline. We only pay $50 a month for this insurance.

So here's what happened. In 2005 the state decided they would raise the premiums by more than twice what they had been. Our premium went from $20 a month (a technical error on our local agents part, it should have been $50 apparently) to $120! But it was still well worth it for us. Sure the extra $100 hurt, but we could cover it. Then after a few months the state took pity on all of us special needs parents and lowered the rates back down to what they had been. This put us down to $50 a month, and since I had paid the $600 I owed for the year already, they told me not to make any more payments. So I didn't. Apparently I didn't make any more payments for the following year either!

How embarrassing.

Luckily I got a quick call back from the woman who sent me the letter and we have arranged for me to pay it over the next few months instead of a bulk payment of $600, which would really have put a damper on the holidays. We were both in disbelief that they had renewed my contract in spite of my lack of payment, but she said I was not the only one to have this issue with them.

So I told my husband he needs to get a raise so I can hire a secretary or a personal assistant, because obviously I am too frazzled to keep track of all this stuff on my own.