Lakewood family struggles with Medicaid enrollment
Lola Milo is certain it shouldn’t be this difficult to make sure her family has access to the health care they need.
That’s because some months or several months in a row, she’s able to keep her family connected to Colorado’s Medicaid program. And then the letters come.
Her husband, an inventory specialist for Best Buy, gets a random check with a one-time work anniversary payment, an extra check on some months, or holiday pay and the whole family ultimately gets the dreaded letters in the mail. The first one tells Lola that she and her husband no longer qualify for Medicaid. The second one also removes her son from Medicaid. She got her most recent letter on Sept. 26 after receiving a letter of approval just a week before, stating that they approved Medicaid and it would continue until the next scheduled redetermination.
“I’ve tried to do things in the Medicaid app like I’m told I should, but I get so flustered.
They make those apps as confusing as their letters. If you put one wrong thing, they are
going to deny you. And honestly, it starts to feel like that’s what they want. It’s just wrong.”
~ Lola Milo, mother, wife and former Medicaid member
That’s been challenging recently because both Lola and her husband have chronic conditions that need continual care. Lola, who has diabetes, hasn’t seen her primary care doctor since September of 2023 because of the complications of keeping Medicaid and fighting to stay on. She really can’t rely on having continuous coverage. Lola had been seeing a therapist with the Jefferson Center who was helping her with anxiety and depression issues brought on by injuries from a serious car accident and her subsequent inability to work. That help has now ended. She also recently had to cancel her dental checkup and her husband’s appointment with a specialist to get to the bottom of health issues he is having.
“I honestly wait in fear of those letters,” Lola said. “We just got our letters and I am certain we’ll get one for my son. Then I have to start the process of trying to correct the record and get approved. It is a never-ending cycle.”
When Lola’s family first became Medicaid eligible in 2015, she would go to Jefferson County Human Services for in-person help that would help her navigate the maze of forms and paperwork to get her family’s situation sorted out quickly. Now, she can rarely speak to a person on the phone and if she does they don’t work on her case, let alone help her get an in-person appointment.
“It seems impossible to speak to anyone and get help to correct anything and then have to wait 30-45 days for any response from emails or letters. It’s so impersonal and frustrating,” Lola said.
Lola has tried to get help from groups like the Jefferson Center and Doctor’s Care, a non-profit that helps people connect to health care, but they don’t have direct access to Medicaid systems and can only work through the same confusing online site that Lola is told to use. And they find themselves stuck in the same loop, constantly directed back to the website and phone app that don’t seem to be able to solve the issue.
“I’ve tried to do things in the Medicaid app like I’m told I should, but I get so flustered,” she said. “They make those apps as confusing as their letters. If you put one wrong thing, they are going to deny you. And honestly, it starts to feel like that’s what they want. It’s just wrong.”
Lola worries about her husband’s ability to keep working if he can’t get the health care he needs. And she worries about her son’s ability to get his healthiest start in life without the preventative care she knows he needs. And, of course, the specter of an unexpected injury or issue is always there. All of this weighs on Lola.
“I feel like I have to get this right. But I don’t know how, they make it so difficult. I’ve tried and tried everything I can think of,” she said. “We can’t keep on like this with the uncertainty and the pressure. Something has to be done to fix this.”