The purple datebook with a religious verse on the cover rarely leaves Cindy Clark’s side.

“The joy of the Lord is your strength,” reads the verse from the book of Nehemiah.

A co-worker gave Clark the datebook to help the single mother of two keep track of her daughter’s medical records.

The pages are for reminders of appointments and telephone calls. The Bible verse was to help Clark maintain her sanity when her daughter’s Medicaid was cut off.

“It’s been hell,” Clark said

Kerrigan Seidel, 11, has chronic asthma and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. Her prescription medications routinely rack up bills of more than $1,000 a month.

During a routine recertification, Clark was told she should apply for a different type of Medicaid coverage for her daughter. The application wouldn’t affect Kerrigan’s current coverage, Clark was told.

“My biggest worry was I’d lose the Medicaid altogether,” she said.

That application was pending in March, when Clark received a letter from the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration that said Kerrigan had another insurance policy besides Medicaid.

Clark was confused and concerned, because Kerrigan has been on Medicaid for years.

She called the call center run by the state’s private welfare vendors and was told not to worry. Then she tried to make a doctor’s appointment for her daughter and was told she didn’t have coverage.

“I was kind of fuming,” she said. “I was really mad.”

Her piles of wrinkled paperwork tell only part of the tale. Clark, who works second shift at Lutheran Hospital, spent her days making telephone calls to the FSSA call center. The reception, she said, was not warm.

“Once you’re dropped, they don’t want to hear from you,” she said. “A couple of them made me feel like dirt.”

No one could tell her why her daughter’s coverage was dropped, but they told her to wait 30 days before reapplying.

She didn’t have 30 days.

“If I could afford insurance, I would have it,” she said.

Finally, she was directed to call the governor’s office, where she said she got an apology.

She was told the FSSA had three duplicate cases for Kerrigan.

When she had sent in paperwork, workers opened new cases instead of adding to the existing case, Clark said.

“Too many people had their fingers on her case,” she said.

The apology helped, as did Kerrigan’s benefits, which were reinstated.

But Clark has higher hopes for the welfare system – better training.

“Nobody should have blown me off like they did,” she said. “Kids get lost.”

aturner@jg.net