University senior Kelsey Rook is grateful for the health care, tuition waivers and meals the state provides her and her daughter, but said she dreads the hour-long bus ride to the Eugene Department of Health and Human Services office, the bureaucratic red tape and most of all, the stigma.
“The problem with assistance-type programs is that there is so much stigma surrounding them,” she said. “It’s hard to get over that stereotype. I just always remind myself that if you have children and you are trying to provide for them, that isn’t a crime.”
Rook has been receiving money from the Oregon Opportunity Grant, the largest state-funded, need-based aid program, since her freshman year, but has been inconsistently accessing multiple other assistance services including the Oregon Health Plan and the Food Stamp Program to make ends meet. Rook said many state assistance programs are plagued with complicated application processes and require those in need to meet archaic stipulations.
“There is this feeling that they don’t really want you to succeed,” she said. “That’s the sad thing. The programs are supposed to help families be more self-sufficient, but they pretty much try every step of the way to disqualify you.”
In the fall, Rook thought she would be able to manage without a lot of state support, but when her daughter Juniper fell ill and Rook had to wait at the White Bird Clinic for more than an hour, she decided it was time to reapply for the Oregon Health Plan. However, Rook said that wasn’t a sufficient solution.
“I couldn’t find a doctor to see her once we were accepted into the Oregon Health Plan until we got our card in the mail,” she said. “I had a sick kid, and I knew she could see a doctor, but none of the doctors would see her until they could see the card.”
The Oregon State Legislature announced Thursday that it would expand the Oregon Health Plan by 80,000 adults and 50,000 children, making it easier for Rook and others to access the program.
Jim Sellers, the Division of Medical Assistance Programs communications officer, said that in Oregon, patients on the Oregon Health Plan have access to doctors after they are approved, but patients have to wait to see a doctor until they are matched with one who is part of the plan.
“The program allows patients to choose from a list of approved Oregon Health Plan physicians, and then they are able to see that doctor for illness and prescriptions,” he said.
Rook said that now that Juniper is part of the health plan, it is becoming increasingly more difficult to defend her decision to not immunize her daughter.
“I feel pressured every time we see the doctor,” Rook said.
Choosing to not immunize Juniper has also made it impossible for Rook to get financial assistance for childcare. She said that even though it is possible to get help with child-care costs, the program has been cut so much that they only accept 500 children and all of those children must be immunized.
“I understand that they want to avoid a health pandemic with all of those kids being so close together, but it is just hard to be told what is acceptable for your child,” she said.
While some programs have strict stipulations, others require extensive energy in the application process.
The Food Stamps Program requires that applicants report their earnings every six months and take steps to receive child support. Rook was not comfortable petitioning for child support and decided not to pursue it. Rook said her choice is difficult to communicate to the Department of Health and Human Services, and she lives with the fear that she may get disqualified from the program.
“Juniper’s dad has some health issues, and so I would rather have a personal arrangement to avoid bitter feelings and tension than get the court involved,” she said.
In one incident when Rook said she did receive some money from Juniper’s father, she tried to report it, but didn’t have a pay stub or photo of the money that was sent, a violation of the Food Stamp Program’s rules for reporting. The DHHS took her off of its program for not following procedure, she said.
“It was so frustrating,” she said. “I was trying to do the right thing by reporting the money, but I had to go down and get a box of food from the food bank until I could get a handwritten note from Juniper’s dad confirming that he had sent me money.”
DHHS spokesperson Gene Evans said the program isn’t flawless, but it is continuously becoming more streamlined.
“It used to take days for people to get approved for food stamps and actually get their Oregon Trail card. Now it is all processed in the same day.”
Evans said the next step for the program will be to make it easier for individuals to report their income and reapply for food stamps after each six-month period.
“The question now is how can we speed up the application and certification for people who are reapplying for food stamps, so they don’t experience a break in services.”
Evans said severe state cuts have made it more difficult for self-sufficiency programs to keep afloat, but said federal stimulus money has helped the program to stay on its feet.
Evans said there has been a 25-percent increase since last year in the number of people accessing food stamps.
“It is shocking how many people are on food stamps in the state,” he said. “There are 590,000 Oregonians using them. That is almost one in six people in Oregon.”
Rook said she believes the Food Stamps Program is too patriarchal and keeps women from making autonomous decisions about their lives and their children’s lives.
“When you apply for food stamps, they only give you one card per family, and they always make it in the male’s name if there is one,” she said. “I have a friend who cannot access her food stamps because her husband has the card.”
Rook said she wakes up early, works three jobs during the week, goes to school and tries her best to be a good mom.
“I try not to do homework when I pick up Juniper,” she said. “That is our time together. I don’t usually start my homework until 10; it makes for some late nights, but it’s worth it. I didn’t let anybody pressure me into what I was going to do after I had Juniper. I knew I was going to go to school, and that is what we did.”
Rook, a women’s and gender studies major, wants to be a midwife, but said pursuing a career in social work has crossed her mind because there are many things she would like to change.
“When I go to the Department of Health and Human Services, even if I just have to drop off one paper, I wait for a really long time,” she said. “They don’t know me by name. They know me by my Social Security number. I realize it is hard to keep track of hundreds of cases, but it is kind of weird that I don’t know one person that knows my situation. I have a case worker, but I have only seen her one time.”
Evans said the point of programs such as food stamps is to make sure people have food, not to try to make personal connections with each client.
“I think people are just very grateful about the stimulus money that keeps food coming into their homes,” he said. “I am not sure people are looking for a lot of additional support beyond that.”
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