Moving States & Need New Insurance - Help

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Parrynd1
Parrynd1 Member Posts: 408
edited August 2018 in Stage IV/Metastatic Breast Cancer ONLY

Hello Everyone,

I need some help and maybe guidance (I’d take a little more sanity, but hey can’t be too greedy). We are looking to permanently move from California to Texas to get treatment at MD Anderson. Right now I have state health insurance pre-cancer since I was a poor student. Now I'm just a equally poor cancer patient with a degree, haha, with good health insurance (thank you CA) unable to work. I've been researching all the companies & policies that are accepted at MD Anderson and just don't have a inkling on how to navigate what isn't going to leaving me on the streets or dying because I can't get treatment. I'm stage IV with TNBC brain, lungs breast so it's not just a history of cancer or a slower growing cancer. It grows in cm in weeks. It's extremely aggressive to say the least. Monthly cost for coverage doesn't matter (treatment so far has cost over $500k gross ...thank you current insurance) since it pales in comparison to out of pocket costs. Does anyone have experience they can share in this? What did you do? Any insurance companies you suggest or things that are specific to stage IV cancer? I see policies that seem ok, but there's fine print that exclude cancer, which, I thought was now illegal...can't turn away for preexisting conditions? Can you get insurance once you are stage IV? Because of the brain stuff I'm not able to work right now so we are on one income and our family makes sure we are ok, but obviously cost is still a big factor without insurance.

I've seen cancer insurance, but that's just as confusing and I don't want to waste money. I'm 30 and giving me a few years to live is crap and I'm not going to let money kill me let alone this cancer.

Also, how did you make the transition of care from one state to another? I'm afraid if we move I'll have to wait months to start on treatments again. How do we do this smoothly? I'm afraid of getting there and being stranded and left to die because it's so costly for treatment. Please help!

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  • susan_02143
    susan_02143 Member Posts: 7,209
    edited August 2018

    Trump has made it legal to sell non-insurance that is only for catastrophic coverage. You can go to healthcare.gov to find the portal for Individual coverage, per what has come to be called Obamacare. However, in an effort to make it hard, you must give them an email address in order to gain access to this database. Of all the states to move to, Texas would be one of my last choices.

    I also think you should repost your request and include Texas Insurance in the thread title. There are many folks on these boards who live in Texas. Perhaps they can help. Oh, and there is an Insurance board on this forum. I would also post there.

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  • scoobie
    scoobie Member Posts: 30
    edited August 2018

    I live in Houston and am a patient at MD Anderson. I'm sorry I don't have good news for you. There are no individual market (Obamacare) plans in Texas that cover MD Anderson. (see more detail here) It's a big problem for lots of people but so far no solution has emerged. My best suggestion is that there is a Louisiana plan that is accepted by MD Anderson and so you may be able to live in Louisiana (near the Texas border) and travel the ~3hr journey to Houston?

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  • pajim
    pajim Member Posts: 2,785
    edited August 2018

    Knowing nothing about this (have employer insurance) I wonder if one of the social workers at MD Anderson could help? They must be faced with this question all the time.

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  • blainejennifer
    blainejennifer Member Posts: 1,848
    edited August 2018

    If you have CA insurance, have you looked at Fred Hutchinson in San Francisco? They are doing equal to or better than MD Anderson as far as trials and research go.

    I mean, if you are going to move and everything.

    Jennifer

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  • scoobie
    scoobie Member Posts: 30
    edited August 2018

    I would second looking at CA options first. I have no experience of Fred Hutchison but have heard great things, I have been several times to Stanford Medical Center for a trial and found it vastly superior to MD Anderson.

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  • illimae
    illimae Member Posts: 5,710
    edited August 2018

    I have no info on insurance (mine is though State as local government employee) but when/if you find yourself here, I am happy to help you navigate MDA/Houston. FYI, I have brain mets too and there are a few of us youngish MDA patients that keep in touch, in fact we’re do for a meet up soon.

    Also, if you visit first and need rides or anything, let me know.

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