And we were thinking of dropping health insurance?

Well, Little Bit "bit" it this evening going down our steep driveway on her rock, roll, and ride trike. Her Daddy, who was supposed to be watching her while I cooked supper, missed her hopping on it, helmetless. Those of you that are not familiar with this trike should know that it is not meant for children to go whipping down driveways on them at warp speed, even though they are perfectly safe and suited for flat surface travel.

Daddy, who is surprisingly not very good in a crisis, came running in clutching a battered and bleeding little girl, and shouting "I need ice, NOW NOW NOW!" Trying to assess the situation and not burn myself, since he scared the crud out of me while standing over the hot stove, my heart sank. Thankfully, I knew she was going to be okay when she wouldn't let me hold an ice pack or boo bunny to her face. However, she's got a black eye and abrasions all over, including a pretty bad cut on her forehead and a not-quite-as-bad one next to her left eye. She was also spitting out blood, so I'm hoping there was no damage done to her teeth. I didn't see any tonight when she let me brush them a little. We are just exceedingly thankful we didn't have to make an ER trip and there are no apparent head injuries. We watched her closely for the rest of the evening, but she seems to be okay. Except she was running down the hall and somehow missed seeing the door frame and bounced off of it and hit her head again *sigh*.

As mom knows, I have been a little frustrated this week. I had hoped to get the girls on the Peachcare insurance system (a statewide children's insurance program designed to help middle income families) temporarily to help us out financially, but our application was denied (after four months of delays). When I spoke to a rep about it, she said it was because our girls had insurance. I explained that we lost our employer coverage insurance when my husband was laid off back in November, but we purchased a temporary, very high deductible policy to cover us in case of catastrophe. The policy we have until my husband's new employer's coverage kicks in in two months is not meant to be a permanent policy, it's really just a safety net if something very high cost happens. In addition, my husband's new salary falls well within the qualification guidelines. She explained to me that that didn't matter, and that my girls could only qualify if I dropped this insurance coverage. When I asked how long it would take for the Peachcare coverage to take effect, she paused and said 30 to 60 days. I told her that there was no way, that with my active little ones I would be crazy to forego insurance coverage and essentially would have to lock them in a padded room for the duration.

The incident this afternoon definitely confirmed it for me! We may have to eat pinto beans for 15 days of the month, but dropping insurance coverage even for a few weeks is not an option. One trip to the ER would totally negate any savings we might have.

I need to go sit in a field of daisies or something (after taking some generic Claritin-D, of course; pollen season, you know).