Cancer is one of the most feared diagnoses that anyone could ever have. To be afflicted with cancer would be like being imprisoned in a glass cage. At any given time, you would be out of the air to breathe and you just silently die in a corner. However a cancer patient chooses to deal with it, cancer will always be something to be financially prepared for.
How to Get Financial Support
Any type of cancer is not designed to strike only those who are well-off. There are people who have cancer even if they are the only ones who work in the family; the only child of a poor couple; social workers; homeless or even people who are diagnosed with other diseases. These cancer patients couldn’t possibly have all the financial assistance that they need for their cancer treatments. This is where health insurance for cancer patients comes in.
Having cancer insurance long before you are detected with cancer will be best since it is really very difficult to acquire health insurance for cancer patients. You could expect up to 18 months waiting for its approval depending on the conditions involved. Ask for the guidance of your union or employer for the specific guidelines in acquiring health insurance for people with cancer. If you already have health insurance before your cancer diagnosis, check if a clause for “catastrophic illness” is stated there.
This could help you with your chronic illness. It’s the same with a Health Savings Account. If you make contributions to your HSA, then you won’t have to pay federal taxes. There are supplemental medical policies where a fixed payment is given for the patient’s daily admission in the hospital. This policy could only pay for a certain number of hospitalizations within a year. The supplemental medical policies could also pay for other expenses including those that are not covered by your insurance policy.
Getting health insurance for people with cancer can be a daunting task to undertake. Even if the patient has already bought health insurance before the cancer diagnosis, the coverage would still be limited. A well-insured cancer patient can still experience financial strains because of the treatments involved. When health insurance for cancer patients is not an assurance, other means of financial assistance can be considered such as disability benefits, non-profit organizations, government-funded insurance plans, and life insurance policies (living benefits). Hence, in such situations, it is important to have cancer insurance to protect yourself as well as your family from all ill-effects of cancer.
What Can You Do In the Case of A Claim Denial?
It might surprise a cancer patient when he or she is denied a cancer insurance claim. Here are some of the things that one should do when health insurance for people with cancer is denied:
- Review the benefits in the health insurance plan
- Talk to the health plan administrator
- Ask the attending doctor to provide a letter stating the justification of the procedures and the insurance coverage
- Talk to the state insurance agency
- Continue to pay for the insurance until everything is resolved
- Keep records of everything about the insurance
- Legal action
How is the Insurance Situation for Cancer Survivors?
Health insurance for cancer survivors is needed for their follow-up treatments. If the patient has insurance before cancer, the premium payments become higher. Health insurance could be very taxing even for those who have made it through their cancer battle. It would be better to have cancer insurance, to begin with. This way, one could have regular checkups and their cancer might just be detected and cured at the early stages of its development.
