OK, you need to sit down for this story. Comfortable, got a glass of wine, OK, after MONTHS and months of phone calls, faxes that were lost, letters that went unanswered, I finally cornered our State Rep who happpens to live in our village and goes to my church. Rick has always been a great advocate for his fellow citizens of "The Friendly Village" but I think I gave his staff a run for their money. OK, here is the story, after having MaineCare (medicaid) for a year for Jim and since birth for Dylan, we were rejected! So began my campaign. MaineCare stated that we were over income, I knew we were not! I got a huge variety of reasons for rejection, none making sense. Rep Sykes put his best man on the case. This drove the poor young man crazy. Remember this rejection was the reason we had to leave all our beloved doctors and join up with the VA, which in the long run was a good, maybe great move. But still there was the question of why were we rejected? Ready.........We could not claim our 9 yr old grandson Dylan as a Dependent!!!! What???? I was the one who caught his squirmy little butt, when he was born, I was the one who sat up nights rocking him, 2 am feedings, all of it, dealt with his Left Frontal Lobe Deficit, (I know weird coincedence), Jim stepped in as the Father Figure when he was three and has loved and supported him as his own for the last 6 yrs. I have PERMENENT GUARDIANSHIP OF THIS BEAUTIFUL CHILD. How can he not be considered a dependent, you ask? WELL, it seems that a child has to be adopted, a STEPCHILD, or biological to be considered a dependent. I had always put him down as a stepchild of Jim's. NOT! He is a, now get this, A STEP GRANDCHILD! That doesn't count! After weeks of phone calls by David of Rep Sykes Office, I began to get phone calls from uppity ups from the Department of Health and Human Services, 3 to be exact and one more today. Today the call was from a Supervisor saying, and get this, this is the part I love......you have been accepted to have MaineCare for all 3 of you, BECAUSE,,,,,,,WE ARE FINDING THAT THERE ARE MANY GRANDPARENTS OUT THERE WHO ARE RAISING THEIR GRANDCHILDREN! YA THINK! So now "they"are looking at changing the description of DEPENDENT! WHAAAHOOOO! I MAY HAVE HELPED MAKE A DIFFERENCE! WHO Would have guessed. Now the sad part is that I can't tell Jim. He would go crazy wanting to go back to our old doctors and would not understand that this is a secondary insurance. The great part is that when the time comes, medicaid will play a big part in helping pay for the wonderful VA Home. AMEN! I encourage all of you to write to your state reps, in your spare time of course, lol, asking them to look at their policy on "dependents" because yes being a grandparent, raising a grandchild is just as expensive as raising a biological, adopted or stepchild!