We are just going to talk about my recent challenges with my new insurance company (WellCare) and their over-the-counter benefit card. I had to choose a new insurance company because the hospital system that I go to no longer takes Aetna. I don't take a lot of pills. I am very healthy. 95% of the time they check my blood pressure, it's usually described as perfect. I have not encountered an insurance company that does not cover my medication. But Aetna gave me an over-the-counter benefit card which I came to depend on pretty regularly. It gave me $225 a month that I could use for just about anything other than McDonald's. (healthy food is covered) I could put gas in somebody's car because somebody's going to have to take me to places. (in a real city, it covered Uber) I could buy dog food because I'm blind and I'm probably one day going to have a guide dog. I could pay bills with it. It paid for my cell phone bill. Yes, at one point I had a government-supplied Obama phone. It was the cheapest piece of junk they could make and hand out to the poor. The interface was literally not fast enough for me to enter in numbers. If I was calling a company and had to enter my date of birth, it would kick me out because I took too long, because I was waiting for Android to process everything and actually read to me which number my finger was on. It was unusable.

This new insurance company gives me $218 a month, but it rolls over at the end of the month, so I don't have to spend it all in one shot. But of course, I have to jump through 10,000 hoops just to get it to pay for more than Tylenol. So the first month I go to use it, and it pays for $1.67 of my purchase, which completely blows my mind. I have no idea why. Nothing I bought was that amount. They give you a total of $71 for food stamps in South Carolina in 2026. I had barely bought anything, and I still couldn't afford the rest. Things are just too expensive. I don't buy expensive things. I buy store brand, but it is still too damn expensive. Luckily, I was with my cousin, who just swiped his card and paid for it. During my last doctor's appointment, I gave them the website my insurance company provided so they could submit all my medical information and history, hoping maybe I can get approved for something before my cell phone gets cut off around the 20th of this month.

My brother only got a partial payment of rent this month, because I may just have to hold onto the money. I don't know. This is what it's like to depend on the government and insurance companies. It is their job to give out as little money as possible. It is their job to find a reason to deny you. The CEO of a publicly held company has a fiduciary responsibility to its shareholders to make as much money for them as possible at all costs. This is the society we have created.

I can change my insurance company every four months. I don't want to change my doctor, but Aetna does offer one plan in my area, and it seems like a much better company. Theoretically this new company could be better simply because the amount I receive every month rolls over. I just need these people to write prescriptions. I don't know why we've made this so complicated. When I went to the doctor, they don't want to talk about what I actually need, they want to sell me on whatever they're currently pushing. (it must suck to be a doctor in 2026)

Point is, it would be so easy to fall through the cracks. There's no safety net for me at all. Anyone who thinks you're set because you're on disability doesn't know a damn thing.

Written by B. on July 7th, 2026.

Mama's birthday would have been tomorrow. She died later this month, which I'm sure Facebook is going to insist on reminding me of. Joy.