Shortly after I was forced to leave teaching on disability, I discovered I had no health coverage for my five children and me. I lived in fear for months — until the union bailed me out.
I made the shocking discovery one day in mid-July last summer when my pharmacist told me I had no insurance to cover the prescription I had just come to pick up. I discovered the unexplained insurance loss had become effective on July 1. I’ve always been careful about keeping up with paperwork and couldn’t understand why or how my health coverage had suddenly ended and why I hadn’t been notified and warned of the danger I would be in.
A fall on black ice in the winter of 2017 triggered this whole misadventure. I have multiple sclerosis and was pregnant when I fell and wound up in the hospital for two months. After my release, it became clear that the accident had so damaged and weakened my legs that I would never be able to return to the responsibilities of being a classroom teacher. I had taught special education science and math for seven years before the fall precipitated my having to retire on disability last June.
And so the back and forth, the phone calls and the endless paperwork began as I tried to get my health coverage back. What worried me most was that there seemed to be no end date as this drama played out.
After months of working on the problem myself, I turned to the union for help and they quickly turned things around. The health reps at the UFT not only contacted the Welfare Fund and the Teachers’ Retirement System, but they also made sure I had the correct forms to fill out and told me where to send them to reinstate my coverage. Everyone at the union kept me informed, returned my phone calls and answered my questions as they worked to solve the problem as quickly as possible.
It was reassuring to know that I was finally getting the help I needed and that everyone had my best interests at heart.
The bumpy transition to retirement is over. My coverage was reinstated in January. I am grateful to the union and everyone who made it possible.
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
/1x.jpeg?auto=webp)
/1x.jpeg?auto=webp)
/1x.jpeg?auto=webp)
/1x.jpeg?auto=webp)
/1x.jpeg?auto=webp)
/1x.jpeg?auto=webp)