Difficulties with UHC Healthy Food Assistance
Without going into a ton of details, here is a quick outline of the problem I'm having with UHC.
I have a Dual Complete plan with UHC, and when I first joined UHC in mid-2025, I was able to use my UHC Card to purchase healthy foods. My wife is currently being treated for stage three breast cancer, and the ability to buy healthy food was a great blessing to us.
However, UHC took this option away from me on January 1st of 2026, and when I called to ask them about it, they told me that I would have to have a form known as the SSBCI Verification Form signed by a doctor, and then they would return healthy food assistance to me.
Last Friday I took the SSBCI Verification Form to a doctor's appointment with me, but when I showed it to the medical assistant, she acted like I showed her a poisonous snake, and she was very adamant that no one at their facility would be willing to sign my form me for me. I explained to the medical assistant that I had a folder full of doctor signed reports, going back to the 1970s, stating that I have been diagnose with schizophrenia and Aspergers Syndrome, but she was not interested in seeing the reports I had with me, and I could not get my verification form signed that day.
After that I went back home and began calling doctors listed on the UHC website, but all of them told me the same thing, they could not sign my SSBCI Verification Form, and that I would have to try another facility.
In the meanwhile, I've been on SSDI since 2012, due to my above disabilities, and I've been unable to return to work since then. Also, our rent went up $200 a month in the past year, and we are really suffering. My wife's oncologist has told us that it is important that she maintain a healthy diet, but we are now unable to afford fresh fruits and vegetables on a regular basis, and now we are stuck eating low quality processed foods to avoid hunger. Neither of us smokes or drinks, so we are not wasting money on frivolous things, but we are now somewhat poor in our senior years.
I sincerely believe that no reasonable person would doubt that I'm disabled, I have a ton of proof indicating my disabilities, but for some reason I cannot get my SSBCI Verification Form signed by anyone, and thus I cannot reestablish my food assistance with UHC.
UHC relies heavily upon AI and call centers located overseas, and thus far I have not been able to speak with a real person at UHC about this issue. If anyone has any advice, I would greatly appreciate it.