Please Pray: Health Insurance

So my dad is a pastor in the United Methodist Church (UMC), and he has been for the last 30 years. The UMC conference (that is, area that our church is in) has a health insurance plan that isn’t Kaiser, but it’s more expensive than Kaiser. So for the last 15 years or so, we’ve had Kaiser insurance instead, which our church pays for.

But we might have to change insurance, because of the conference policy, and how all the rules and politics work. We might have to switch off of Kaiser insurance, to the conference policy, in the middle of all of this.

That is crazy. This is crazy. Thinking of having to find new doctors, new specialists, new people who we’d have to tell our story to over and over again, in the midst of my mom’s cancer & stroke recovery, in the midst of my dad’s disability and chronic pain. Having to give up my dad’s amazing pain specialist who understands reflex sympathetic dystrophy (something that few doctors know anything about). Having to give up my mom’s brain cancer specialist, who’s one of the best in the field right now. Having to switch in the midst of all my mom’s medication, and chemo, and all my dad’s pain medication. As if we don’t have enough to deal with.

My dad is going to call people in the conference (the insurance guy, my dad’s supervisor, and other people who can advocate for us) and try to get an exception for our family, so we don’t have to switch insurance, or pay for the Kaiser insurance ourselves. Please, please, please pray that the insurance guy, and everyone else, finds favor for my family, and makes an exception. Please pray that our conference acts as a church, a family, instead of just a business. And please pray that it happens fast, since we have to decide what to do by November 11. Please pray that we get to keep our insurance, without having to pay for it ourselves.