Losing health insurance w/cancer. Options?

Marty81

Someone close to me has cancer and is currently going through chemo, and she's going to do radiotherapy afterwards. She also just lost her job and is therefore being dropped from her job-provided health insurance. I don't know if she's going to be able to get new insurance to cover the treatment. Basically I'm just wondering what her options are here...this isn't a very well thought-out post and honestly I just found out about this recently so I haven't had much time to figure things out on my own. Any advice would be helpful at this point.

Thanatos

I'm assuming you're in the U.S. She needs to get ahold of her state's Medicaid office (probably a division of the state department of social services) to get government coverage, because there's no way in hell a private insurer is going to take her.

Ruckus

Sometimes health insurance from a job can be carried on by the former employee after they leave the company. She should find out if that's an option, probably by contacting the HR department at the former employer or directly contacting the insurance company that was providing it.

Marty81

Yes, we're in the US. I'll look into that stuff. Her former employer was a public elementary school.

AtomBomb

I believe the thing you're going to want to ask about is COBRA. Have her talk to her former employer about it. It makes it so that you can continue coverage after you lose your job. She'll have to pay the full premium, plus some kind of processing fee to the old job (who will actually handle the paperwork/payment). It's going to be the only hope of getting coverage in the future too, as it stops you from having a "gap in coverage" where they can reassess the "pre-exsisting conditions" of the person trying to get coverage.

If she's in the US, afaik it's mandatory for the employer to send her all the COBRA stuff if she is fired from a job where she had health coverage.

If you have any specific questions I can ask my wife, as she worked in HR/benefits for awhile.

That situation sucks. I hope it works out for her.

Horus

Thats good of you to look out for your friend like that. Yeah check out the Cobra then theres an option where the insurance can be paid as personal. It would be expensive, my dad has prostate cancer and lost his job due to building was falling apart. Cobra was running out (3months) so it would end up we had to pay which was 1k a month. Hope you find a solution to this problem because she should focus on recovery.

inert

yeah see about COBRA insurance.

out of curiousity, did she lose her job while she had cancer? because for some reason i'm thinking it's against the law to terminate a full time employee when (or more likely because) they have a terminal illness... i could be 100% wrong here but it could be worth checking into...

best of luck to you...

EggyToast

Short-term Health Insurance. it's worth a call to a few companies to see if they will take her on. It's obvious that she needs a real, long term plan. If she is jobless and is likely to qualify as disabled, then she should contact the government. But if she needs something to cover her while that kicks in, she should contact short-term health insurance providers. COBRA is insanely expensive.

JHunz

No offense, but did you read your own link?

The most important thing to remember when buying short-term coverage is that these low-cost plans are not designed to cover any pre-existing conditions.

i.e. They will not cover the cancer, making them essentially worthless in this situation.

COBRA may be expensive, but they can't deny you anything for pre-existing conditions.

EggyToast

I haven't compared the plans (as you can't just call 'em up if you don't have a pre-existing condition) but I have had some friends and relatives with diabetes use them for the short term. They won't be the low-low-cost plans, but she has more options than COBRA, especially if the gov't can give her an actual timeframe.

edited to add: however, one thing to consider is that I'm pretty sure, with how COBRA works, she'll be able to continue seeing the same doctors. That may be more important to her than saving a few bucks. She still needs to call medicare/medicaid, though.

Marty81

So, it looks like she was on a year-to-year contract, and her contract simply wasn't renewed this year. She was diagnosed with the cancer about two months before her contract was up. So it's not like she was fired, but it's still kind of crappy.

Also, I just found this out: I'm not sure of the specifics yet, but I think she has the option to stay on her current health plan (she has to pay for it now though) for 18 more months...not sure what's going to happen after that. At least she'll be able to remain covered for the remainder of her treatment. I'm not sure if she'll qualify as disabled afterwards or not, but I'll look into what the government has to offer.

Thank you all for the advice so far.

Natsus

Marty81 wrote: »

So, it looks like she was on a year-to-year contract, and her contract simply wasn't renewed this year. She was diagnosed with the cancer about two months before her contract was up. So it's not like she was fired, but it's still kind of crappy.

Also, I just found this out: I'm not sure of the specifics yet, but I think she has the option to stay on her current health plan (she has to pay for it now though) for 18 more months...not sure what's going to happen after that. At least she'll be able to remain covered for the remainder of her treatment. I'm not sure if she'll qualify as disabled afterwards or not, but I'll look into what the government has to offer.

Thank you all for the advice so far.

That is what COBRA is. It will be expensive. To give you an idea, it cost me 120 per paycheck while I was employed, 450 with Cobra. For someone with a terminal illness though, there's no reason not to, and there really is no other choice.

Marty81

Natsus wrote: »

Marty81 wrote: »

So, it looks like she was on a year-to-year contract, and her contract simply wasn't renewed this year. She was diagnosed with the cancer about two months before her contract was up. So it's not like she was fired, but it's still kind of crappy.

Also, I just found this out: I'm not sure of the specifics yet, but I think she has the option to stay on her current health plan (she has to pay for it now though) for 18 more months...not sure what's going to happen after that. At least she'll be able to remain covered for the remainder of her treatment. I'm not sure if she'll qualify as disabled afterwards or not, but I'll look into what the government has to offer.

Thank you all for the advice so far.

That is what COBRA is. It will be expensive. To give you an idea, it cost me 120 per paycheck while I was employed, 450 with Cobra. For someone with a terminal illness though, there's no reason not to, and there really is no other choice.

Ok, cool. Like I said, I don't know about the specifics yet. It's actually the mother of a friend who has the cancer, and I talked to the friend tonight. I wouldn't have even known what questions to ask if it weren't for this thread. I'm just doing what research I can to help.

Yeah, the COBRA will be expensive, but at least it will cover the rest of her treatment (so she'll be able to avoid going bankrupt), thank God. She's close to retirement.

Underdog

Aw man, that sucks. 2 months before her contract runs out, she gets diagnosed with cancer and then the school decides they don't want her back anymore. Contract work sucks.

PeekingDuck

I thought COBRA was a temporary deal? Doesn't it run out after a while?

DevoutlyApathetic

She'll likely run out of money before she runs out of COBRA eligibility.

Marty81

PeekingDuck wrote: »

I thought COBRA was a temporary deal? Doesn't it run out after a while?

Yes, it will run out after 18 months (though apparently it can be extended if she qualifies as disabled). That at least covers her current treatment and gives us some time to figure out what to do next, though.

supabeast

If I were you I would start looking into non-profits that might be willing to help her pay the COBRA costs until she’s able to work again.

jkylefulton

This might sound insane and far-fetched, but is moving to a country with socialized medicine an option? I'm thinking Canada, France, or the UK. If she lived there, she wouldn't have to worry about this stuff, and she could focus on recovery.