Only a Government Employee:Unemployment Office Worker Questions the Number of Days on a Calander...This is the Future Under Obamacare!

I recently lost my job and I bet you have heard that quite a bit lately. In my case I was injured in a car accident and let go as a result of not being able to return to work within 12 weeks. The Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) requires employers to hold your position for that 12 week time frame if you are injured outside of work.

Now that you have a little background on the situation, as a result, I applied for unemployment on June 23rd. I was told, in general, it takes 21 days to come to a decision on any given case and after that time if a decision hasn't been made that a meeting could be arranged to discuss the case. Not surprised in the least that a government office took a couple of weeks to possibly get an answer, I waited my 21 days, planning on the worst case scenario.

Last week, on July 13, my 21 days had come to pass and of course I had no answer. After about 10 phone calls I was finally able to speak to a real live person! At that time I was told that I needed to have a signed physician statement in regards to what capacity I am able to work in--no problem. I am currently under the care of a neurosurgeon at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston who is very good at completing paperwork in a timely manner and was she able to fax the form directly to unemployment the very next morning.

That morning, I called the certifying officer assigned to my case who I had spoken to the prior afternoon. Of course, she didn't answer and I was forced to leave a my signature message stating my name, phone number and social security number 3 times slowly as to be sure I am understood by even a trained monkey, if that is in fact who is on the other end of the line. After getting that out of my system, I decided that I would continue my efforts to reach her and call every couple of hours. This went past the 24 hours in which the voice mail greeting of the certifying officer had ensured me that I would get a call back in. Hoping persistence would pay off in this case, I kept at it the next day starting by leaving another message with her again as well as others in her office.

My phone calls and voice mails continued day after day with no response whatsoever. That brings us to yesterday, July 20th, by the time of this post. To that point I had made 20 calls and left 4 voice mails to my certifying officer, as well as about 15 calls and 5 or 6 voice mails to representatives at all three of the major unemployment offices in my area.

Around 1 pm on Monday the 20th I finally received a phone call from a claims agent in the office of my unaccessible certifying officer in regards to my claim. The agent informed me that the certifying officer hadn't been in for a few days and that my case had been handed off to someone in a different office. I informed her that my primary concern was if the physician statement made it into the system before the officer pulled a Houdini and vanished into thin air. She searched through the system to find that it was received but not entered into the system and it was currently unaccounted for. Translation: They lost it and have absolutely no idea where it is! She then started to question when it was faxed, to which I informed her it was faxed first thing on Tuesday, July 14th. In her tone it was apparent that she didn't believe me, so I asked if she could tell me who received it. She stated Houdini herself, the vanishing certifying officer, had received it. I then asked her when Houdini's last day was; she stated that Houdini went home early on Tuesday.....she completely failed to make the connection! I was completely astonished that the women I was speaking to was able to keep a job and not end up in the unemployment office along side me, given her obvious IQ. Almost laughing in disgust at this point, I was given the name of my new certifying officer.

After taking a ten minute breather from stupidity, I called the new officer and big surprise, no answer. I again left my signature message, and proceeded to call again and again until my total number of calls reached 16. Feeling that I would again be stuck waiting for days on end in phone purgatory I decided to take a drive down to the office, armed with the individual's name whom I needed to speak to.

This is where things take a turn for the worse. Upon arriving, I waited my turn to be seen by the receptionist. When my turn came I stated my concern in regards to the lost physician statement. I also mentioned that I would like to speak to my new officer and that I was willing to wait as long as necessary to due so. I was then informed that in addition to not answering the phone, certifying officers will not meet with their clients. By this point I was beginning to get angry, but keeping in mind what was at stake, I kept my cool. I explained that I have already waited 4 weeks for a decision and I needed to be ensured that the physician statement is in the right hands. Instead of addressing the concern I had just raised, she decided to inform me that it had only been 3 weeks. Knowing that I was in the right, I pulled out the paperwork I had from my initial application on June 23rd and handed it over the counter to the receptionist. She looked at it and again stated that only 3 weeks had passed! I take exception to being called a liar, and I decided to open the calendar in my Blackberry to prove my case. After showing her on the calendar and counting the days out loud, she still insisted it had been only three weeks! The gentleman next to me was having a hard time controlling his laughter during the exchange and I looked to him as he shrugged his shoulders, also in disbelief. I surrendered, unable to reach the poor girl who was obviously delusional from working within the government, or was unlucky enough to have been pushed through our school system without passing grades. She insisted that I needed to wait a few more days for "processing". Translation: hopefully we find it by then.

I left the office absolutely disgusted by the fact I am having such problems receiving a benefit, since I have worked in the state of NH for 8 of the last 10 years, of which the past 3 1/2 years has been without lapse upon retuning from college. I headed back to the apartment that I still had no money to pay for, when on the way I realized I had just witnessed the future of our health care system under Obama's new plan. Thats right, the level of unaccountability amongst over paid, under skilled affirmative action government hires has reached an astonishing level already. We already have a the beginnings of government run financial sector, as well as the housing and auto industries, and now with the talk of a take over of health care I think that leaves a great too many positions open to people such as the ones I have been dealing with at the unemployment offices.

I have tried to make light of the situation that I just outlined, as I try to do with all situations in which I have little or no control over. The sad truth to the story is this: If the people in the unemployment office drag their feet and misplace all of my paperwork I may lose my apartment, my car or any other number of worldly possessions; but if the same caliber of employee were handling my medical paperwork and making a decision on whether or not I was in need of immediate care, I would be dead by now. Keep this in mind when listening to Democrats pushing for a government run health care system: we already have a government health care system--Medicare--who's budget is always in red ink and under constant threat of collapse due to unfunded liabilities and poor management. To Obama, Pelosi, Reid and company in Washington, I propose this: Take Medicare and reform that into a deficit neutral program before you try and sell us on the idea that we will save money and improve efficiency by having the government between me and my doctor. The sense of urgency in this matter IS entirely entirely political, contrary to Obama's statement yesterday. This IS all about him and his agenda, as well as the fact that he sees support for his policies slipping. He realizes that the public is catching on to the creative government math that trickles all the way down to the receptionist's adding skills at my local unemployment office, and he wants to pass cap and tax and Obamacare through congress in a hurry before loses the support of some in his own party.