Cancer with no insurance

Not a good place to be.

Without insurance or with Obama care you are in deep shti. In California, you could not go to a UC hospitals as it is not covered. I would have had to go to a local surgeon and ENT and most likely would not be here now. The doctor who is considered the best oncologist around saw me and said I did not have cancer just 9 months before and they estimate I had the tumor a minimum of a year and most  likely 18 months.

Only 5 thought I would get through it. My father in law [86 years and his wife ]  never thought I would make it so they had his niece drive them 300 miles and would not leave until I was out of the eight hour surgery and had a five hour drive. My son and brother didn't either. With the tests trying to find the cause of my weight loss and coughing blood, then the PET/CT [$12,000] I stopped counting at $350,000 and the follow ups and prosthesis to talk and other supplies and meds $1200 a month. the first year was $365,000 total. The Hospital was $14,000 a day without treatment and meds.  Many have had to file bankruptcy to just survive. Others, just don't have treatment and because of the expense, they don't make it.

You do have really great insurance. I have a $3000 deductible and then it is 80% but when you hit $6800 out of pocket then its is 100% I had no problem hitting full coverage before my surgery. Yes, the insurance negotiates an agreed price which is much less so even with the deductible I get a break on everything and Rx counts as part of the deductible. I had to have a laryngectomy and breath through my neck. No one in the medical field has ever looked at my medical alert bracelet I am to wear 24/7, and they don't know how to get oxygen to me. The local hospital refused my request five times saying I don't need it. I was sent there because my local Dr said he has no idea how to get oxygen to me and with a heart rate of 126 just sitting there he sent me to the ER. Our local is rated the best in the central valley for 150 miles in any direction [45,000 sq miles]

Bill

I'm from Maryland living in

I'm from Maryland living in India and my employer( just hired last August under a two year contract.) my employer covered 8,900 usd I had to cover the rest. My total bill so far ( one 12 hour surgery, one 4 hour surgery, and 30 sessions of radiation) 22374 usd. Luckily I was able to pay it all in full. My surgeon trained and worked in the U. S.A. so I think I was fortunate. I think traveling for medical procedures is a real option.

Tonita said:

Well, there are options.  I

Well, there are options.  I think most hospitals have a financial assistance department and based on income, can help.  Also, one could apply for state insurance through the state health exchange. 

I had just signed up for my health insurance in February and was diagnosed in February. 

 

The state health exchange in California ??? No Good.

I would most likely not be here. Obama care lied like you can't believe. Now each state is different and 26 don't have it but we do. In California, you can not go to any UC hospital and I believe any teaching hospital. They are not covered, you will go to a "Local" hospital who knows nothing about this. The ENT does tonsils if you are lucky but he will have the hospital surgeon do the surgery. Now in just my case, I had to have a laryngectomy and I am pretty sure he has never done one. There are only 60,000 living in the entire US. Also, the "Best" oncologist told me not to worry, I do not have cancer. That is why they took my vocal cords to remove my cancer tumor. He took blood work and looked at some X-rays. To this day, I wonder if he had found it I might still have vocal cords, and was told for the tumor to get that big I had it most likely 18 months and at a minimum of a year. I saw him nine months before.  WE do have the Best rated hospital in the valley which covers 150 miles in every direction.

There other options. I was too young for medicare and had a job. Now my son is hurt and can't work but is not disabled, so he has the Obama care or it might be Medicaid not sure. Can't even see a doctor in our town. They are full so he has to go to another town and that doctor he was assigned would not see him, he said he was full and could not work with all his medical condition, so they had to send him to still another town. Now they only will change at the first of the month so you have to wait until next month to see the doctor. Just hope you are not really sick, or you have no choice but the ER. Now the Hospitals will do their best to work with you and have some financial assistance, they just can't make $350,000 get small enough to pay even if the cut that in half. If you could pay $300 a month it would take 48.6 years with no interest. The hospital would have to write off almost all of it. There is ways because the man in the bed next to me had no insurance and the room was $14,000 a day with no meds or tests and he was ordering all the food he could when someone came to visit, he ordered food for them, but said it was for him so no one paid. Now you can have food sent up for your family but they charge for it and he just said it was for him.

I have heard that some states are good. Mine is not and the rates have gone from 3

$250 a month to over $1200 a month which is hard to pay, oh that was per person, not a family.

Bill

Not Affordable

To even think of not having insurance scares me.  Even with my so called "great" insurance, my out of pocket was still $5000, now it's $7500.  I had just retired 4 months earlier and had put all my savings into buying a new home with no mortgage.  My poor wife ended up working twice as many hours and we had to take out a loan on the house to pay the bills.  So much for the no mortgage plan.  But hey, who am I to complain?  I'm alive and had the only surgeon in Las Vegas who was trained and authorized to use the TORS machine.  Without that, my jaw would have been broken in two just to get their hands down my throat.  So yes, I am very grateful.  A bit poorer, but grateful.  

 

Tom