Listen, I don't ask much out of government bureaucracies.

I could even almost deal with the fact that FIVE different CSRs at the healthcare exchange have given me SIX contradictory sets of details about the status of my weirdly-delayed application.

I could deal with the fact that all those conversations have basically ended in "It's fine. I'm sure it's fine"—despite each one telling me a detail of the previous CSR's version was NOT fine.

I could even deal with the fact that the one I spoke with on Saturday told me all I had to do was call BC/BS and pay my premium and it must have just been an oversight that I was never told to go ahead and make payments... but BC/BS had no record of me whatsoever.

But it would have been really nice if, after waiting 10 minutes on hold for her, the ACA operator who I thought had JUST reassured me everything was going to be fine, and I'd basically satisfied all the deadlines, even if it took longer than that to process my documents... had not contradicted herself and told me I might need to call for an extension on my enrollment the day before it ends.

IN THE SAME FUCKING BREATH, DURING THE SAME FUCKING SENTENCE in which she told me I didn't need to.

In the meantime, I guess I'm having a look at gofundme. Juuuust in case. >____< And maybe also at the contact page of healthcare.gov and some glitter-and-fish-guts shipping agencies.