I have always been a firm believer in the fact that government programs don’t work. When we were living in Tulsa, it seemed like anytime I was in a grocery store or corner store there was somebody buying something with food stamps. Then I would watch them get into their brand new car and stop into a Starbucks for a 5 dollar cup of coffee before heading home. I know that everybody has their own situations but when I would see that kind of thing it would bother me.
Since Isabel’s birth by opinion has changed slightly. When we were in the hospital we were told that she will rack up over a million dollars in medical bills before she is a year old. It was a blessing that we have very good insurance however, we quickly learned that insurance isn’t going to cover everything. Once she had been in the hospital for over 30 days we learned that she was eligible for Medicaid. My first reaction was that we don’t need government help, those programs are for people that don’t have jobs and can’t work. Then I saw the first bill and realized that if we didn’t have medicaid for her we would be filling for bankruptcy before the end of the year. I still think that there are too many people take advantage of government programs but I thank god that the program is there for us and others in the same situation to use.
One of the things that helped prepare us financially for everything that has been going on with Isabel was doing a monthly family budget. Right after Addison was born I read “The Total Money Makeover” by Dave Ramsey and we started following his plan. In the last 3 years have been able to get a lot of our student loads and other debt under control. If we hadn’t started working the plan as we did we would still be having a very difficult time paying for everything even with Medicaid.