We wanted you to hear directly from two of our beloved clients, Linda and Jim. Like many of us, they thought they had done everything right and still ran up against significant obstacles trying to get the care they needed.
This month, our goal is to raise $50,000. Can you help us get there by making a donation? If you increase your usual gift, or if you're a new donor to us, for the month of May your donation will be matched! After you meet Linda and Jim, you’ll see why your gift makes such a difference in people’s lives.
Here are Linda and Jim:
Jim: “Three years ago, while Linda was in the midst of treatment for a malignancy, my employer changed insurance. We both work, but we were on my insurance because it covered Linda’s whole medical team. That was a big deal for us. We loved her medical team. We trusted them. And we wanted to stay with them.”
Linda: “But as the enrollment period kicked off at both of our companies, we couldn’t figure out, for love or money, whether my medical team was covered by Jim’s new insurer. We did a lot of research but couldn’t get a firm answer. It was really stressful not to know whether my medical team was covered, and to still have to make a decision about which insurance to pick on a tight deadline. We were in a quandary.
We decided to sign up for both of our employers’ health insurance plans to cover our bases. We had to make sure we’d have health insurance, even if it wasn’t exactly what we wanted. It was a bit of a roll of the dice, but we didn’t feel like we had any other options. Thankfully, we did find out at the very end of December that my medical team was covered by Jim’s new insurance, which was a relief.”
Jim: “We gave Linda’s medical team my insurance numbers, and we were covered on my policy for about six weeks in a very seamless way while paying premiums for both insurance policies. But then we hit a hiccup. One of Linda’s treatments wasn’t covered in full. Turns out my insurance company thought Linda was double-dipping since she also had her own health insurance. This was baffling: we just thought we were being diligent, smart consumers.”
Linda: “By the time the insurance company started denying payment, hundreds of thousands of dollars had been exchanged. We were working with all of the billing departments but we weren’t getting anywhere. I was getting ongoing treatments, every 28 days, so it’s not like we could delay a treatment because we didn’t know what was going on with the insurance. We needed to continue on our treatment plan to get the best kind of outcome, but we were racking up these statements. We were really frightened by the volume of money involved.
Then, I remembered hearing about Cancer Legal Care. I called, and we had a conversation with Bill. Bill understood our scenario beautifully- better than we did, and he got right to work on it. It was reassuring to know that he was always a step ahead of us. We think he walks on water, because within a couple of weeks, we got communication from him that there’d be a one-time-only opportunity for me to cancel my employer’s health care benefits.
My HR called and said, ‘You must know someone, because I’ve never seen this before. You have a one-time opportunity to cancel your benefits and lay this to rest. We’ll refund you for your three months of premiums.’ And the matter was solved!
We’re not really sure who else could have untangled that- where else would we go?
The stress of these kinds of problems, and what it does to your immune system, to your sleep patterns, and to your psychological well-being… it’s oppressive. As if dealing with cancer isn’t bad enough! When you’re fighting for your life, the last thing you need to worry about is insurance and financial glitches. You’ve got enough on your plate.”
Jim: “This is what I’d say to Cancer Legal Care’s donors: it’s essential to support CLC. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people trying to navigate these issues without help and they’re really getting themselves in a bad situation. These issues are really complex.”
Linda: “A donation to Cancer Legal Care benefits your fellow human beings at the most vulnerable times in their lives. This is an organization that goes above and beyond.”
