Triumph

Sword is Drawn / Library of Congress
Sword is Drawn / Library of Congress

A few years ago, I had a royal bureaucratic mess with Medicare over an expensive brace that they should have paid for. (Medicare is the US government's health insurance plan for the disabled.) I called my Congressman, my Senator and filed appeal after appeal.

Recently I ended up on a phone call with a Medicare Administrative Judge from Ohio, who swore me in. It was court by phone! His verdict: Medicare would pay for the brace, but it would have to be made again, for obscure legal reasons. I had to mail back my old brace, which was in fine shape.  Then I had to go back to the hospital and get measured again. Then the company remade the brace.  This struck me as a waste of time and money, not to mention environmentally stupid.

I did win, though. Don't mess with me on bureaucracy. I usually triumph.