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We spent our time to and from the doctor's appointment worrying about money. Right after we got home from the doctor's appointment today, we spent two hours scrambling to find health insurance that would help cover this surgery. The doctor goes on vacation tomorrow, and he wants to do the operation before he leaves. He also wants to make sure we don't drain our savings and go into serious debt for this. I feel fortunate to have a doctor who is concerned about our financial well-being.
You see, he explained some details that made this sink in on how serious this is. Cancer is usually measured by how long it takes to double in size. Most cancers are measured in months or years. Testicular cancer is measured in days. It's the quickest to spread, but also the easiest to treat.
The good thing is that we just found a company that will cover him. I had looked at the insurance that is offered by Family Dollar, which wouldn't set in quick enough and would cover a small amount of money for operations. I then did a quick internet search that pulled up a promising short-term plan, but didn't cover cancer stuff (which is a pre-existing condition, even if it's only been discovered in the last month) and learned that there aren't any short-term plans that cover pre-existing conditions. Then I looked up something called SpendDown, which is a clause in the Medicaid system, but it doesn't work well with us either. We just spent half an hour on the other side of the block from the doctor's office applying for Medicaid. It doesn't cover surgeries, and the SpendDown thing doesn't help very well either.
After I called two hospitals in Utah to ask if they had any financial aid programs, I was just about to call the bishop of our church congregation to ask if the church could provide financial aid when Just'In walked in the room with his cell phone to his ear with a thumbs-up. They'll cover 70 percent of the costs and they'll Email him a confirmation so we can get into surgery as soon as humanly possible. We'll continue to worry about money, but we feel a lot more safe. We still want to move, but I'm taking this one curveball at a time.
You see, he explained some details that made this sink in on how serious this is. Cancer is usually measured by how long it takes to double in size. Most cancers are measured in months or years. Testicular cancer is measured in days. It's the quickest to spread, but also the easiest to treat.
The good thing is that we just found a company that will cover him. I had looked at the insurance that is offered by Family Dollar, which wouldn't set in quick enough and would cover a small amount of money for operations. I then did a quick internet search that pulled up a promising short-term plan, but didn't cover cancer stuff (which is a pre-existing condition, even if it's only been discovered in the last month) and learned that there aren't any short-term plans that cover pre-existing conditions. Then I looked up something called SpendDown, which is a clause in the Medicaid system, but it doesn't work well with us either. We just spent half an hour on the other side of the block from the doctor's office applying for Medicaid. It doesn't cover surgeries, and the SpendDown thing doesn't help very well either.
After I called two hospitals in Utah to ask if they had any financial aid programs, I was just about to call the bishop of our church congregation to ask if the church could provide financial aid when Just'In walked in the room with his cell phone to his ear with a thumbs-up. They'll cover 70 percent of the costs and they'll Email him a confirmation so we can get into surgery as soon as humanly possible. We'll continue to worry about money, but we feel a lot more safe. We still want to move, but I'm taking this one curveball at a time.