California BC patients with no insurance

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WendyInCalif
WendyInCalif Member Posts: 172
edited June 2014 in IDC (Invasive Ductal Carcinoma)
California BC patients with no insurance
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  • WendyInCalif
    WendyInCalif Member Posts: 172
    edited September 2009

    I have lost my insurance.  When calling my local hospital in Fresno (St. Agnes), she said I should call "Every Woman Counts."  Placed a call there but had to leave a message.  Own a home so do not qualify for Medi-Cal.  Was shocked when she quoted me the price for a diagnostic as 560.00 and then fell silent as if after losing my job I could come up with this kind of cash.  There is a compassion fatigue taking place which is very disconcerting. 

    Can anyone tell me if they have experienced this? 

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  • CoolBreeze
    CoolBreeze Member Posts: 4,668
    edited October 2009

    Wendy,

    I was surfing Herceptions official website today.  They have a brochure about the drug, in PDF format.  At the end of the brochure are a bunch of resources for patients without insurance.  You might want to check intto it. Herception.com or something like that.

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  • WendyInCalif
    WendyInCalif Member Posts: 172
    edited October 2009

    I am so dazed I forgot to check back for answers ...

     I did come across "Every Woman Counts."  This program allows for a diagnostic mammogram, breast clinical exam and a Pap smear.  Elizabeth Edwards can be thanked for this.

    I believe I am about to enter into the nightmare of having a serious diagnosis and not having insurance.  Even scheduling was difficult and the woman said "we are so busy now with everyone having lost their jobs, appointments are hard to get." 

     I got scheduled for end of month - This is a follow-up diagnostic mammogram (six month follow up after lumpectomy in May 2007 as seroma formed in Mammosite surgical area. 

     I cannot believe the dismissal of my oncologist, internist and the radiology department at the hospital - it was as if I have ceased to exist and they were in quite a hurry to get me off the phone.  Compassion fatigue is what I would call this.  The contrast to how I was related to with fairly good insurance to know is phenomenal and discriminatory.  I am Canadian and will in the next few years be moving back up there as the patient load on public health care most probably is only going to get worse.  

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  • nelia48
    nelia48 Member Posts: 539
    edited October 2009

    You might try this program:

    http://www.dhcs.ca.gov/services/medi-cal/Pages/BCCTP.aspx#whoiseligibleforbcctp?

    We have it here in Florida, too, and all my treatments from day one were paid for.  I haven't paid for anything so far!

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  • ICanDoThis
    ICanDoThis Member Posts: 1,473
    edited October 2009

    Wendy - I know that I would have reacted as you have to the abrupt end of your relationships with your doctors. I would have been hurt and angry.

    The good news is in our diagnosis (we have the same one). We are grade 1, stage 1 - our odds of recurrence are so low that Britain has actually considered discharging us from follow-up treatment after we finish rads, as we are so unlikely to recur.

    Look at it this way - you don't NEED to give them your money!

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