Lost homes, delayed treatments, death. Metastatic breast cancer patients have a shot at changing the access paradigm.
PUBLISHED August 09, 2018
Martha lives in Illinois and was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer in January 2015. She has a husband and three children, ranging in age from 12 to 18, a dog and a lizard.
"We've lost three rental homes and a motorhome because I don't work due to stage 4 breast cancer. I've hired an attorney. I've gone to a hearing and received partial disability. We've asked for a reconsideration and I'm still waiting ... I've been fighting this for four years." - Carrie, Maryland
"During that two-year waiting period for Medicare, I completely cleaned out every dime I had in my small savings, I moved in with family and I lived off credit cards, accumulating quite a hefty debt. I was paying $500 to continue my personal insurance policy and then the normal cost of living (rent, food, transportation, gas). I emptied the bank and ran up thousands of dollars in debt before the [five-month] waiting period was up. Even once I finally began receiving my disability payments, it was only a small amount (compared to full-time salary) and my first priority was paying the $500 monthly premium for my insurance to continue ... [Now], they deduct the cost of my Medicare premium from my already meager disability check, then I have to use what's left for my personal insurance policy. Whatever's left after both of those costs, I get to live off of. It's a sad system but I'm stuck." - Tia, Nevada
"During that two-year waiting period for Medicare, I completely cleaned out every dime I had in my small savings, I moved in with family and I lived off credit cards, accumulating quite a hefty debt. I was paying $500 to continue my personal insurance policy and then the normal cost of living (rent, food, transportation, gas). I emptied the bank and ran up thousands of dollars in debt before the [five-month] waiting period was up. Even once I finally began receiving my disability payments, it was only a small amount (compared to full-time salary) and my first priority was paying the $500 monthly premium for my insurance to continue ... [Now], they deduct the cost of my Medicare premium from my already meager disability check, then I have to use what's left for my personal insurance policy. Whatever's left after both of those costs, I get to live off of. It's a sad system but I'm stuck." - Tia, Nevada
No comments:
Post a Comment