Hey, I've been browsing the forum for awhile and hope you guys have some ideas for us!
My husband (21, pwcf) and I have been attending college full-time since 2003. I have private insurance but he doesn't have coverage since we were married. His Medicaid came up for review when he turned 21 last summer. We re-applied in June and finally got denied in January after sending in many updates. Their explaination was "You are unable to work at this time, but your condition is expected to improve and should not prevent you from returning to some kind of work activity for a full 12 month period." Basically, we're financially needy but they think he's not sick enough.
We've been encouraged to appeal this decision, but we need new and compelling evidence. His PFTs have been at 30-40% for months and he has TOBI and Pulmozyme through their patient assistance programs. He worked part time our sophomore year but his health and grades suffered. For the past 5 years he has been hospitalized every 6 months and will need to go in again fairly soon.
In October he was hospitalized for 10 days. They told us he would qualify for 'emergency Medicaid' and not to worry about it. We later found out that that wasn't correct information and that Medicaid would cover the bill when we were approved. <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-tongue.gif" border="0"> Needless to say we're left with a huge bill, and we've applied to the hospital's charity department for assistance with it unless we're approved this time.
Anyways... any ideas on how we can convince them his health is bad enough that he can't work full-time right now? Working while in school was too hard on his health. It seems they want him to quit school and work for $9/hour to get insurance. We're both horribly naive about this... but from what I've read there's no way we could afford premiums or co-pays living like that forever. I plan on getting my Master's after graduation, but of course we'll do what we have to.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated! I've seen a lot of people who are students on here so I know there must be a way. If it comes down to it one of us will have to drop out and we'll finish our degrees separately. Or leave the country. <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-tongue.gif" border="0"> We're also going to contact the CF lawyer to see if she has any ideas. I hope this wasn't too long. TIA
~Shauna
My husband (21, pwcf) and I have been attending college full-time since 2003. I have private insurance but he doesn't have coverage since we were married. His Medicaid came up for review when he turned 21 last summer. We re-applied in June and finally got denied in January after sending in many updates. Their explaination was "You are unable to work at this time, but your condition is expected to improve and should not prevent you from returning to some kind of work activity for a full 12 month period." Basically, we're financially needy but they think he's not sick enough.
We've been encouraged to appeal this decision, but we need new and compelling evidence. His PFTs have been at 30-40% for months and he has TOBI and Pulmozyme through their patient assistance programs. He worked part time our sophomore year but his health and grades suffered. For the past 5 years he has been hospitalized every 6 months and will need to go in again fairly soon.
In October he was hospitalized for 10 days. They told us he would qualify for 'emergency Medicaid' and not to worry about it. We later found out that that wasn't correct information and that Medicaid would cover the bill when we were approved. <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-tongue.gif" border="0"> Needless to say we're left with a huge bill, and we've applied to the hospital's charity department for assistance with it unless we're approved this time.
Anyways... any ideas on how we can convince them his health is bad enough that he can't work full-time right now? Working while in school was too hard on his health. It seems they want him to quit school and work for $9/hour to get insurance. We're both horribly naive about this... but from what I've read there's no way we could afford premiums or co-pays living like that forever. I plan on getting my Master's after graduation, but of course we'll do what we have to.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated! I've seen a lot of people who are students on here so I know there must be a way. If it comes down to it one of us will have to drop out and we'll finish our degrees separately. Or leave the country. <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-tongue.gif" border="0"> We're also going to contact the CF lawyer to see if she has any ideas. I hope this wasn't too long. TIA
~Shauna