Cancer and no insurance - what would you do?

[pjb45]

First thing you should do is contact your state welfare office, department of health and medicaid offices.

Get qualified for medicaid! Typically this is done through the welfare offices but other agencies can qualify you. Your state government is your best friend in this circumstance. Explore every option.

The Hill Burton Act among others obligate hospitals to provide care. But this is very tricky. It does not necessarily mean free. Hospitals have a deduction from their cost reports that include; contractual allowances, bad debt, etc. But that is way up the food chain. So do not count on it.

Every state treats charity care differently so you need to explore that first. In CA, counties and cities also have regulations and funding regarding care.

On a different note: get your will in order. This is the most important thing you can do for your family. Second, get your 'end of life-medical decision documents' in order. Third go see an estate planner.

You need to tackle this problem on two separate but equally important levels; medically and financially. The latter is what lingers on.

The cost of treat cancer is very high. It will run into hundred of thousands of dollars. Talk to a lawyer to seek advice about sheltering assets and bankruptcy.

[-JQ-]

Yeah I know about the need for end-game planning.

The main point I guess is that I'm not going to rack up a bunch of med bills that will be left behind...been there done that.

I used to have an estate, but after my wife died in '05, there isn't much too fight over except piles of unloaded brass and few left over pounds of VV320...and some really fast lenses

One of the biggest things I learned from the past experience is not to leave debt...being broke helps here.

Something else I learned is if you don't buy your own headstone you can't be assured what will be on it - or who...my former in laws bought my wife's stone (without my knowledge) and had their names put on it with her and left me out...this is the one infraction by them, of many, that I have the hardest time letting go. Yeah I have a photo of it in case you can't believe "decent" people can be so foul. And yeah they are on both sides of her...boxing me out for eternity.

I hope this thread helps others out there get there affairs in order.

Thanks for all the contributions to this thread.