Through an unexpected combination of circumstances, I qualified for some government aid for health insurance and for food assistance during the past two years. The process to qualify, the paperwork required, the phone interviews and the bureaucratic hoops I had to jump through were annoying. It was still worth the effort because both saved me thousands of dollars each year.
Soon though, Trump’s BBB budget cuts are going to eliminate these for me. Asnear as I arable to determine, the food assistance will disappear at the end of 2025 and the health insurance at the end of 2026 (if not sooner).
…whatever. I wasn’t counting on having either so I consider the past two years an unexpected bonus.
It was great to have a week’s worth of groceries covered each month – especially since my grocery bills are at least 33% higher since 2021. It was a relief to be able to pull out an insurance card and have have my urgent care visits covered for a small copay and my vaccines free. It’s a bigger relief having an emergency insurance backstop in case I had a catastrophic health issue. I expect I won’t have this again until I qualify for Medicare.
Still, my reaction is…whatever.
I’m not counting on the government to protect me. I count on it to tax me, enforce laws on me and try to control me. I count on politicians to disappoint me.
I am grateful I have the means and capability to take care of myself. If I didn’t, I’d be forced to submit to the rules, regulations, BS and run-around that the government requires ignorer for truly destitute to receive a minimal level of assistance to meet basic needs.
I could offer more commentary on this, but I’m going to stop because much of what I have to say is based upon my limited exposure to these two programs and my uninformed opinion. If you’re interested in uniformed opinions, you confined them everywhere. I won’t add mine to the mix (at least for today).
*No Free Lunch original post.