Condition: Un-Covered!

You would think that after almost 5 years I'd have nothing more to say on the issue of getting treated for cancer. Alas, that is not the case.

Treatments may be over but my lasting effects are far from gone. We're not talking lasting effects as far as my health goes, I'm talking about the lasting effect cancer had on my Insurance coverage.

My insurance has been a mess ever since I was first diagnosed. My insurance cancelled on my as I was taken in to the emergency room for the first time. They said I wasn't covered outside of New York and they cancelled me on the spot.

I was changed over to another provider that same night but my parents paid much more because I had a pre-existing condition. The company didn't want to cover half my scans and tests and my mother used to spend hours on the phone fighting the charges.

When I got married my husband and I went on the same plan and it's still a fortune cos of my condition. They refuse to pay anything unless I personally call them and tell them that under so and so clause of so and so law in my contract, they had to cover me.

And let's not forget about the co-pays!!! I went to the pharmcay to pick up a perscription and realized that the co pay was more than the actual medicine! I offered to pay for it myself- I need this insurance like a hole in the head.

My husband is into the idea of getting each of us a life insurance policy- of course, he's been trying to get one on me for a long time but these companies charge a fortune to insure someone with a pre-existing condition.

If I have to go to yet another life insurance company and take yet another blood test and EKG and urine sample, I will sue them all.

This week I find out that I am no longer on any insurance plan. The one I was on with my husband is up for renewal and we just found out that the payroll we had been on cut us off six months ago.

Being on a company's payroll list is so that we could apply for insurance with a group and that makes it cheaper cos the companies assume that if you are on payroll you are well enough to work and that makes is much less likely that they will ever have to shell out money for you.

So now that we have to renew our policy we have to show that we are on payroll but because we are not anymore and we were never notified that we were being cut off, we cannot renew our policy and we can't get COBRA cos we would have had to apply for that as soon as we were cut off.

So now I need to go for checkups in one month and if I don't get onto an insurance plan within 20 days I will have to apply for insurance as a brand new patient which means that they can reject me or raise my rates for my pre-existing condition yet again.

This is EXACTLY what I need erev Pesach!