I have read a few of your post and they as ususal hit me right square in the chest! Wow. I was turned down for medicade, too young for medicare and no insurance co will touch me. I am a hard working honest 50 year old ( almost ) with nothing. I have gone to the American Cancer society and everywhere I can think to go but doors are just being shut on me. So yeah I give up. I quite. I think it is horrible that cancer patients and survivors can't geet any help when the US treats the world. For everything. If my cancer gets so bad that It can't be cured then My children will know that I do love them. I will miss them I am about to loose my home thank God my children are grown and gone. I have no husband so that is no problem. I always wanted to be a beach dwellar so maybe I will catch some seashells to sell. You probably won't be hearing from me anylonger becuase I quit! Something will kill me just as well be this crap. And the sooner the dam better!

Lepreckaun,

Don't give up. Take your story to your local newspaper and maybe they will publish it. Read what you say in your signature line.

Have you tried to get charity care at your local hospital?

DO NOT GIVE UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know how difficult it is and if you are by yourself it can seem hopeless at times.

Any major hospital has a financial aid department to help patients in your situation. The hospital where I was treated had nurses who were always fund raising for patient who couldnt afford their treatments and medications.

I work with someone whose mother is a boss in the financial aid dept of the hospital. They write thousands of dollars off daily when people cant pay. There are different agencies who may be able to help you. Ask or go online for your hospital and see what they have. There are all kinds of creative ways you can get help, please try.

OMG!! I forgot to take my meds and was really down I am sorry. Heck yeah I am fusterated I hurt but I was not raised a quitter and I will not quit. I will continue looking for help who knows maybe someone will tell me yes. So I do apologize for my earlier post. and David I had to look back at my signature ok thanks!!

You had me worried. Your posts are usually so upbeat. Its ok, everybody has some down moments. Glad you are feeling better. Hang in there, persistance will pay off.

i sure hope our gvt (fed or state level) can figure out a way for all of us to be able to have healthcare. i am not meaning this as a political post please don't take it as that and i used to live in canada where they had socialized medicine and i have heard since i left there that it hasn't worked so well and it is hard to get care there now, so i am not for socialized medicine but if they could make it affordable for everyone to get it, would be a good solution.

i think it is just wrong when you cannot get care needed to live. turn away those with a cold who run for nothing .. but not those who need care to live. that should be a given.

ok i am done. sorry. just don't like reading posts like this

hugs to ya lep - quit is not a word that is an option.

So glad you are feeling better, but we've all been at the "I give up" stage. I wish you were Canadian and didn't have to go through this. While BOTH medical systems have their problems, at least in Canada you don't have to deal with cancer and financial issues. From what I have seen of the care, I believe the Canadian system is comparable to the U.S. - only major difference is wait times - which, I agree, could be critical to prognosis. But, we're Canadian and patient - so we wait!

The sun will shine again. Some days it doesn't feel like it but suddenly you are at a day when you think...boy this is nice...and then you now you have found that time you were waiting for.


Donna

Go file for SSI. If they turn you down, a lawyer will get it for you. Hell , they pass it out to the border grasshoppers. LOL I believ it was meant for taxpayers that get sick or hurt and can't work anymore., Some get it as a free welcome gift. LOL I hope this doesn't make anyone mad or upset, but thease are my feelings.

SSI will help and there are people out there that used to work for SSI and know the system - now they help out those that cannot fill out the mounds of paperwork and get it thru. The bottom line is that it is standard practice that SSI will turn you down the 1st time around, but there are people that will help you with the paperwork and not ask for anything upfront, ONLY a one-time small percentage of what you get if you are approved. So, go for it!! I pay in enough taxes that it would delight me to help out those on this site that need it vs. the border grasshoppers!

I have to correct some of that post.. SS pays the lawyers and they don't touch your money. The Judge even told me not to let them con me out of any money because they get paid from Social Security. I had $45,000 until I had to pay Wheeling Pittsburgh Steel back over $18,700.

Brenda,

Does the hospital you use have a cancer navigator? If they dont, ask to be notified when they do. This is a person whose job is to help cancer patients and their families through the various bumps in the road, medical, financial, psychologial, burecratic, etc. Many drug companies now have special programs to help patients who can not afford medications. Also try drugstore chains.

Go to the post I put in today, I listed and ins co that will sell to us and put their 800 number there too

Well I'm glad that you decided not to quit. I was in somewhat in your position when I was diagnosed. I had recently made a move to another state to new job and had to drop my insurance carrier.

My new employer didn't offer health insurance so my wife and I went out and got health insurance for her and the kids but it was way to expensive to add me to the plan (very healthy then and not diagnosed with cancer yet) so I ended up just getting dental and life insurance and was looking for a catastrophic plan. Then got caught without health insurance when I was diagnosed.

We ended up working with the hospital's financial aid people. They turned us to our counties medicaid program who due to our financial need picked me up. We contacted the county, the county commissioners determined that we had financial need and they picked up our billing for a year. We have to pay that money back to them but it's an easy $25/month payment.

I applied to SSI and was approved the 1st time, but had to wait 5 months from the time of first application to get assistance. We kept applying to medicaid and were finally approved before I had to have my surgery in June.

I'm still on SSI and Medicaid, the biggest thing is to keep working with your hospitals people, your county's people, state people...trust me, people in these positions have hearts and will help you, just tell your story and express your need without getting frustrated at them. Now we did have hardly any income as I had to step away from my job and my wife had gotten laid off due to the economy and that helped us.

The paperwork is everything too, every agency complemented my wife on her paperwork being flawless and that it saved them soo much time.

My community really stepped up as well and has raised thousands of $ for me and my family as well. This money helped us pay our bills when neither of us had any income coming in, and supported us until my SSI finally came through in September (filed in Feb).

Hope that helps, also work with your local churches, the Lutheran church matched our local charity efforts up to $2500 dollar for dollar.

good luck to you, I know it's hard, I've been there and if you have any ?'s I can answer i would be very glad to help, just message me.

Eric

Same here,

My students and home town came through with fund raisers and anything else I could have asked for while in treatments. Not so much from the places that you would really expect support from.

SS, no luck, but then I came through the whole experience in fair shape, can work a few hours here and there, not enough to survive on though.

It's been 6 months since I had any medical coverage or minimal income. Still no help and I really would like to get in for a follow-up, but I am not the kind to run up a bill I KNOW I can't ever pay.

Owning a couple of $400 cars, buying the crumbling old house I have been in for 30 years and getting a little uneployment seems to be the barriers. It seems that you must be living in a cardboard box before they will talk to you, but then again, with no perminant address...

Interestingly enough, minimum funding IS available to go back to work, but like getting the "unofficial" diagnosis years ago, they can't actually assist with medical issues, even if to be certain you aren't going to drop dead after they pump $$$ into putting you back to work.

Time to give another try to all the above, but it seems to me that having a little faith and not expending all of my energy on dead end bunny trails might actually be best. Keeping a sharp eye out for stray METs of course.

Tired and broke,

UncleVern