One of the biggest and unneeded stressors while fighting a chronic illness is having financial, and insurance issues. Dealing with medical debt can drive you straight into bankruptcy, and having you scrounging around for food at home, going to pantry's, seeking community help like your local church's, Salvation Army, and more. Job and Family Service's is suppose to be there to fill in the gap, but they have been too consume with catching and preventing fraudulent applicants we slip through the cracks.
I go through issues with Job and Family Service's for many reason, they no longer are providing social workers directly through their service. I'm young so people don't understand why I can not work at this current time. I think that comes from not looking at the case, they are just looking at the minimum to get through the phone call. Dealing with different services gives me the blues, and I wish I was able to work and get receive good insurance. But the fact is even though I'm getting better, I am not strong enough to work, my endurance to just get through a day is very low. Although my abilities have strengthen it takes a toll on my body. I use my strength to walk or clean my house, which I never have been able to get through cleaning my little apartment in one or two days. Then for the next few days I pay for it, I'm stuck in bed. Really wish I didn't have to deal with these different issues.
The truth is if I return to work or get regular insurance my chemotherapy or immune defeinciey drugs will not be covered. Not to mention all my medications are tier 3 and 4 drugs. Which means they are very costly or they or not covered at all.
What I found out here in Ohio they have two systems which determine Medicaid. You can do a job and family services application but if your denied, ask for an appeal or if your eligible through the OIES program. There is no information on this update and caseworker's do have to go out of they way because it's not connected to the OJFS. This program came out 2014, and still has a lot of bugs. But its worth the hassle if your medical bills exceed your yearly income. I know mines do, with all the hospitalization, infusions, and treatments.
Truth is no one is going to hand you or show you where you can get help. Each couple months I have to come up with back up plans, looking for medical assistance. I request Financial assistance forms from the hospital I'm treated commonly. I have to map out public assistance places like the pantry's, church's, local organizations as well as national foundation that give out scholarship's. As well as manufacturer discount's and assistance where they will help pay or pay for it all themselves because of my income. At this point I just need to save the information on my hard- drive cause I go through these issue's to often since I was diagnosed in 2013.
What I learn is people don't care what you are already fighting, you have to be your own advocate as much as possible or you will never get better. Your situation might get worse, which that was what happen to me until I started fighting and learning how the health system is setup and works. That is very important no matter where you live, each county and state go by different rules. I'm finding that it is more important than ever to be a register voter so we can vote for our Medicaid and Medicare issues. You have to write in to your local representatives, to get them to understand that society is still having issues with the health system. Speak for yourself, don't let no one else speak for you. In all this I'm saying you must fight in every aspect hard to receive improvement and just have a quality of life.
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