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This literally JUST happened.
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So I work in health insurance, and as a plan that offers coverage through our states Health Exchange, I often have to contact the states 800# for assistance on applications I’m working on.
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About an hour ago I received a call from a new applicant, and after asking the basic questions I let him know we may not be able to complete his application today simply due to the fact that he’s only recently documented in the US / NY that the states system may have trouble verifying his ID, which is a big deal. He understood and we continued with the process. Just like I thought, it gave us an ID error. Tried to use his NYS ID# and DMV Document# in order to continue, but that also failed. I tell him not to worry, we may just need to call in to the state hotline to resolve this, and worse case scenario he may just have to fax a copy of his documents in, he’s eligible based on everything he’s told me so far, we just gotta work within the system, ya know?
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Normally, we could just conference call in to the state line, but this can sometimes make the call take longer as the state reps have to do double the verification, and if the applicant has a lot of background noise going on.. it just becomes a whole big thing. As his representative, I can just call and get it done, so I’d rather do that.
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So I call in, go through all the verification we need and explain the issue. This guy turns out to be the most helpful guy I’ve ever dealt with in my 7 or so years at this job. He was very thorough, went through all the trouble shooting options to get this resolved etc. While on the subject of the applicant, I brought up how I didn’t think to ask the applicant if he has a social security number when he obtained his license, as that might be the reason why the states system can’t verify his ID (simple mismatch error). After explaining how that could be the reason, he randomly went off on a tangent…
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While still keeping his calm, composed demeanor, he starts to rant about “you know, it’s funny how that works. I know at least back in the day they could issue drivers licenses to undocumented people… but then they can’t get auto insurance because they don’t have a social!” which at this point I’m still just like haha yeah, life’s funny like that… but unsure which way this conversation will go. That alone was a bit inappropriate, maybe that’s all he’ll say and we can get off the phone since there wasn’t much he could do to help me by this point anyway, right? Right?
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Wrong. He decided he would keep going with an anecdote: “you know, it’s a big problem in the area my mother’s from, Danbury CT area, you have all these undocumented people, **mostly from South America, and they’re not the nicest people** so they drive around like crazy, get into accidents all the time and it’s like ‘oops, I don’t have insurance so I guess you’re screwed.” Followed simply by “well, anyway, is there anything else I can help you with today? Okay, well Mr. Easycure I wish you a great day, have a safe 4th of July weekend, and a great summer!”
Now… did I mention I’m Latino, and my family originates from South America? Cuz even if I didn’t, and even if you agree with his views, it’s still HIGHLY inappropriate for him to dare say that shit. The ONLY reason I didn’t say something is because, frankly, I didn’t want to say something I would personally regret considering those lines are in fact monitored and recorded. Let the fucking auditors get him. I just couldn’t believe he went down that rode. Granted, he had no way of knowing my South America lineage, but maybe JUST maybe that’s why she shouldn’t have opened his fucking mouth to begin with. I can’t tell you how many time’s I’ll get casual racism from applicants I’ve helped over the phone in the last decade or so I’ve been in this industry. That’s nothing new, it’s the fact that it came from the mouth of a state employee who really should know better that blew my mind in that moment.
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