Life as Crisis Management: The SNAP or Food Stamp Kiada

 

I am retired and living on a fixed income of around $20,000 dollars a year. Even with a $400 dollar car payment—I bought a car before I was forced into retirement by vampire capitalist SUNY—I was doing OK. Then I got sick.

My sickness started when I took a generic version of Advair. After taking it I immediately struggled for breath and subsequently I developed stomach tightness and consequent deep breathing difficulties and bowel problems. I went to the doctor and have now been sent to a heart doctor, a pulmonologist, two allergists, an ear nose and throat specialist, and a Gastro-Intestinal specialist, including recently a GI liver specialist since I have liver and kidney cysts,  My doctor now wants to send me back to an allergist and to a urologist while the liver GI specialist is sending me back to the GI generalist. 

Needless to say, this merry-go-round that seemingly never stops is costing me monies even though I have Medicare and New York state retiree health insurance. As I told me GP after I brought this up when she wanted to send me to more specialists the copays of $25 dollars, $50 dollars—trips to an urgent clinic—and $100 dollars—three trips to the accident and emergency—not to mention three CT scans and two MRI’s, add up. And this is why, along with car issues, my savings are almost gone.

Because of the decline in my savings I decided, after looking at the qualifications—which I met--to apply for SNAP or food stamps through New York state, the state in which I live. I went to the online website and filled out the forms and provided pictures of my Medicare, NY state retirement income,  Ny state driver’s licence, and a host of other necessary documentation they demanded. About a month or so later I got a letter from food stamps saying they needed information about my pension. I assumed they meant my TIAA CREF “pension” of $70 dollars since they didn’t specify what they meant and I had already provided them with a picture of my NY state retirement income. So I sent it to them. In fact, I sent them the original since I no longer own a printer and wanted to get the documentation in as quickly as possible. Why they could not have asked me to send a picture of this online as I did the earlier ones is beyond me.

Several months later my application was denied. They said that I did not send them the requisite information. Did the post office lose the letter with document I returned four days after I received it? Did the SNAP office lose it? Was this intentional so that roadblocks where put in the way of applicants again and again hoping that the applicant would simply, at some point, give up? I immediately appealed the ruling by writing, calling, and emailing. 

Recently I received a call from the Albany County Government, the public bureaucracy that handles food stamp applications in Albany County, and which I assumed was related to my food stamp application given the timing. Though my phone is working and I had it near me I apparently missed the call. Is it one of those bots that lets the number ring once or twice and no more? I missed it again while at the doctor’s office. I tried to call and tell them when I would be home but got no response after I left a message. So here I am stuck in the hard place that one is always stuck in in a Kafkaesque and Voinovichian bureaucratic world.