Keleigh

JoEllen - I totally understand. It's ridiculous the amounts they can charge - you'd think it'd be illegal.

My sister has leukemia and is on disability. As such, she receives about $1000 from social security, but the Cobra she's on has now raised her rates to $810/month. Add to that the copays on all her medications and doctor visits, and she's wiped out. How can anyone, let alone someone with a serious illness, live while paying those kind of premiums. When she speaks to her insurance company, they say they're following federal guidelines about how much to raise rates. Then the individual looks at her premium and essentially says, "Wow. You're hosed."

And because she owns a home, all those patient advocates or patient assistance programs won't help her. You have to be completely destitute to receive any kind of assistance. It's so frustrating because she's been a responsible adult, thought she was doing the right thing to be protected, paid her taxes, disability, insurance, etc, and then when we need it the most, they let us down. Oh, and she's not eligible for the high-risk state insurance pool because someone (Cobra) is offering to insure her.

Sorry to hijack your thread. This just makes me so angry, and I don't think enough people know what's going on. I wish I had an answer for you...

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