Dear OCF members Please help!
The reason for my e-mail is because I have a brother who is a brain cancer survivor.
He wa recently fired from his job. We believe
that he was fired in a discriminatory manner
his employer provided insurance for him during
his cancer treatment. They were just awaiting the oportunity to fire him and found any excuse to reduce his work hours, change his schedule many times at any given notice etc.
He recently filed for unemployment and was found liable and is receiving benefits.
Thus, my brother is left with no insurance and
with a terrible ordeal because he has no health insurance to pay for his over priced medication. He lives in PG county, Maryland and was denied medicaid.
The type of brain cancer he had was an intracraneal germinoma of the pituitary gland.
After his treatment which involved chemo, radiation and a shunt; he was left with
a non-functional pituitary gland, which means
he is no longer able to produce the normal and important hormones his body needs to survive.
Whithout his medication he will not be able to live very long.
What things can we do? Does he have a case against his former employer for discrimination?
How will he pay for his medication?
Please help I love my brother and I was there for him since day one and once again he needs my help please advice me on the best things we can do to help him.
Thanks sincerely,
Nidia Dominguez

Nidia - I sympathize with your situation, but these boards do not deal with this kind of issue much. Each denial of benefits is so unique and individual that I do not think anyone will have an absolute answer for you. Of course there are COBRA benefits with his old insurance for a period after his termination. The issue of discrimination in that termination is something that the legal battle you will have to wage will determine, and all I can say is it would not be the first time that an employer behaved this way. May those that do so all rot in a dark place.

The only options you have right now are your legal ones, and dealing with the various state and federal agencies. On our additional resources page, from the main navigation bar of the front page of our web site, what outside assistance we have been able to locate and define is listed. In this economy it isn't much. But you are going to have to work the phones with every possible agency out there to get him what he needs. Take names, lots of notes and reasons for denial. You would not be the first person to have to threaten legal action against a state agency to get what you need, and actually are qualified for. The legal options should they prove fruitful, will take time, and that may not be on your side. I wish we could be more help here. We all wish you the best.

Nidia --

An article in today's (4/13) Wall Street Journal discusses possible sources of aid to help cope with the costs of cancer treatment. It does not address the legal questions that your brother must decide how to deal with, but perhaps some of the groups could provide assistance with medications, etc.