Uninsured Cancer Patient in New Jersey Needs Help

I received the first e-mail in this string about a week ago, from a man I will call "George," whose wife was just diagnosed with breast cancer. They have no health insurance.

Anyone who lives in New Jersey and knows what resources are available to help George and his wife, please post a comment below, or e-mail me at jeanne.sather@gmail.com and I will forward your message to George.

I get way too many e-mails like this. It makes me sad. And it makes me mad.

George to Jeanne

Jeanne,

Thank you for helping.

My wife has been dignosed with breast cancer, no mets, but three-negative breast cancer. The problem: we are not insured. I need guidance to navigate in this storm. Just give me the first light. I am new in this tunnel, so any direction, relevant material I will appreciate.

I am reading your Web, but is a lot of information...so any particular material shoud I read first?

Thank you. Really.

George

Jeanne to George

George--I'm so sorry about your wife's diagnosis.

I would suggest that you read "Jeanne's Diary" first--that's what I wrote when I was first diagnosed. Remember that it's a few years out-of date, and treatments have changed a bit since then.

Here's the link: Jeanne's Diary

On the health insurance--what state do you live in? And, not to be snoopy, but do you have assets, like a house? There is probably more help available if you are poor, but it's not hopeless. Let me know.

Best,

Jeanne

George to Jeanne

Jeanne, thank you for your response. I will start reading your diary. We are in New Jersey. No property assets. Just savings.

Thank you,

George

Jeanne to George

George--my first thought is "hide some of your savings" if you can and if you feel OK about doing that. You are going to want to look poor.

If you have to pay the whole bill, you might pay $100,000 for your wife's treatment for the first year.

George to Jeanne

OK. Thank you.

Jeanne to George

I won't post your e-mail address, either one. People can give their comments on the public blog, or they can e-mail them along to me to forward to you.

George to Jeanne

Thank you, Jeanne for all your help...I am reading your diary to see the first light in this long tunnel.

George to Jeanne

Jeanne,

I hope you are doing well.

I talked with Medicare and they told me:

+ Minimum one year of disability

+ Four month to review the case

+ 40 quarters or five of the last 10 years working

So If I undertood correctly any Medicare coverage will not start after at least 16 to 18 months? Is that was your same experience?

When you were diagnosed did you have health coverage? Did they cover all? Or just a part?

Do you talk about this issues? Please tell me where.

Thank you.

George

Jeanne to George

George, sorry that I have dropped the ball on getting back to you.

I did have health insurance the first time I was diagnosed. It paid about 70 percent of my total bill, leaving me with some debt. Later I had other insurance plans that paid more, and right now I am on a state-sponsored plan for people like me with illnesses that make us ineligible for individual private insurance.

I am also in the process of sorting out Medicare benefits, which I become eligible for next month. I will send you links to what I have written about that, and will let you know what I learn that might apply to you and your wife.

A couple of thoughts:

Have you talked to a social worker at the hospital or cancer center where your wife was diagnosed? A social worker might be able to tell you what resources are available to help you in New Jersey.

Rather than Medicare, I think you should be applying for Medicaid right now. Is that what you meant? Because it takes two years on Social Security Disability to qualify for Medicare, unless you are retired. Please clarify this one for me.

Here are a couple of categories on my blog that might be helpful:

Medicare

Medical Billing/Insurance Woes

@ Jeanne Sather 2008.

Comments

[jeanne]

I just sent George the e-mail I received from PR people for this service (? if we can call it that?) for people without health insurance.

I haven't checked it out yet, so if anyone is using this or knows anything about it, good or bad, please let me know.

For more information about the Together Rx Access Card and to enroll in the Program,

contact Together Rx Access at 1-800-966-0407, or visit TogetherRxAccess.com

[Renee Fox]

Hi Jeanne,

I think I sent you this information before, but I am not sure, so I'm sending again. The National Counsel of Aging has a free website, www.benefitscheckup.com, that can help find programs that might be of help. I belive anyone can use it.

Also, ask every provider, hospital, etc. if they have a "hardship" form you can fill out? Some don't count assets, and will let you deduct all expenses.

Most states require at least one company offer insurance to uninsurables. I'm not sure if New Jersy is one of them.

Also, call the manufactures of all the meds required. Some of them offer assistance.

Jeanne, I'm sure you have probably covered all of this before, but I haven't read all of the blogs.

Let me know if I can help. I worked for one of the large insurance companies for 2 1/2 years in the Medicare field, so if I can answer any of you questions, feel free to contact me.

Renee Fox

[Anna]

Jeanne -

The New Jersey Cancer Education and Early Detection Program can provide help with finding treatment resources. She may have to get screened at a CDC approved facility, but she should be able to get Medicaid if their income is low enough. See http://www.lsnjlaw.org/english/healthcare/women/medicaidwomen/

They may also want to try the NCI fact sheet for more resources. http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/support/financial-assistance

Hope that helps.

Anna

[Teri]

Here are some sites that I hope are of use to anyone in New Jersey facing health care, with or without insurance.

New Jersey health information libraries
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/libraries/newjersey.html
Libraries are supposed to assist you with locating information - call and ask them about uninsured programs, questions about diagnosis or treatment options that have been presented to you by health professionals, etc. Remember - libraries are information; you don't want librarians diagnosing you (grin!), so call them after you have been told diagnosis/treatment by health professionals.

Department of Human Services, Division of Medical Assistance and health services http://www.state.nj.us/humanservices/dmahs/index.html

HealthyNJ: information for healthy living (appears to be a consumer health information site for New Jersey citizens) http://www.healthynj.org/

I searched for uninsured programs, but was unsuccessful in locating anything but those for children. I would hope that anyone in the same situation anywhere would find assistance with the main hospital giving the care - keep asking, and ask some more until you locate the person you need to talk with!

[jeanne]

Everyone--thanks for all the good suggestions. I live a long ways from NJ, so didn't really know where to start, but the rest of you sure did!