My new job has a waiting period of three months for health insurance but we need medical treatment now!?

Many drug companies have programs which will help you get your medications either free or at a reduced price. The place to start is at your doctor's office. Call and give them the details, and maybe they can help you. It would also help if you would ask if they could give you some free professional samples.

Because you live in New York State, you and your wife can purchase any health insurance that is sold to individuals where you live, for the same amount of money as everyone else between age 19 and age 64 pays for individual health insurance where you live. You do not have to wait the three months and you do not have to pay the $1600. Unlike most states, New York does not allow health insurance companies to reject anyone (or charge extra) because of existing medical problems. If you do not get any health insurance until three months from now, then you will have to pay for all the medicine, yourself, with your own money, for the first 6 to 18 months after you do get insurance, without using insurance for it during that time. If you have no insurance for more than two months in a row, then, for the first 6-18 months after you do get insurance, it only covers new medical conditions that first develop after you get insurance, and does not cover existing conditions during that time. Existing medical conditions will be covered as soon as the new insurance starts ONLY if you had other insurance during the time between when your insurance from the old job ends and when the insurance from the new job starts, so that there were no periods of more than two months in a row without insurance.

That is what COBRA is for. Your previous employer should have told you about it. Under COBRA, you can continue your insurance from your old employer (you have to pay the premiums). If this all just happened a couple of weeks ago, can you still sign up, now that you have income? They usually have to give you so many days to decide. I realize the insurance is expensive, but so is medical care. $1600 a month is about the going rate for a good family policy. You would be better off buying the insurance. What are you going to do if you or your family have a really catastrophic expense? Lynn is right. If you go too long without insurance (I think 60 days) your new insurer will consider this a break in coverage and offer even less coverage or a longer waiting period.

Wife's condition is preexisting. If she didn't take COBRA coverage, she's uninsured, and even your new employer can make you wait before covering the preexising condition. The exact time of wait, depends on how long she's been uninsured, and what state you live in. You're right, you sure won't qualify for Medicaid. $1600 a month for family coverage isn't insane, it's a realistic price. I think you have an UNREALISTIC expectation of what you should pay for health insurance. Obviously, as you're seeing now by estimating your current medical and prescription USAGE by the month, it's not unrealistic. You should contact your pastor, and see if your church family can help. You can also contact Catholic Charities - you don't have to be Catholic. You should also apply for prescription assistance through www.rxassist.org and www.pparx.org if you can qualify. And you can check with your local school district to see if they offer routine immunizations at free or reduced cost for qualifying children. Quite plainly, it's way, way cheaper for you to pay for one or two doctor visits for your son, than to pay for that family coverage. But wife is going to be wracking up huge medical bills, at her current rate. She DEFINATELY needs to talk to her pharmacist about getting generic substitutions, or see of her doctor has any free samples to hand out for a few months.

When you got laid off did you sign up for Cobra? If so, your old policy continued. If you didn't there's no coverage for medical treatment and prescriptions until the coverage kicks in with your new job. There will be no retroactive payments. Coverage is from acceptance date forward. When there are preexisting conditions this serious, it's critical not to let insurance lapse. Based on how you described your wife's medical issues, she is pretty much uninsurable under a private policy. You didn't mention how long you were unemployed. If it was a very short period of time you may still be able to pick up Cobra and continue that until your new policy kicks in. I can't remember the time frame allowed. Call your former employer's HR dept and ask if that's an option. EDIT NOTE: OUCH. The reason Cobra is so high is that the total premium for group plans (employer + employee contribution) is that those plans MUST accept everyone in the group regardless of their health. So that $1600 was the total premium for the coverage you were getting before. You're in a tough spot. Medication samples from the DR's office might help for the meds. For the DR bills themselves maybe they will take payments. Good luck. :)

Ask her doctor for generic medications or for some samples that will tide her over for 3 months. Or, take her to a county or community medical clinic and pay cash. Get prescriptions filled for generics at Walmart, Walgreen, Costco for $4. Do what other uninsured people do. Get creative.

FMS is highly over diagnosed...most people diagnosed with it actually have something else--some aren't physically ill at all....it in not appropriate to consider the diagnosis until the RA is under treatment... RA causes widespread pain and fatigue....its tiring being in pain and it can affect sleep quality is it 1600 for just you and your wife? maybe you can leave your son off and hope for the best... many people have had to do without for a few months---you make due the best you can... you can try www.pparx.org but when I looked into it, it took a month to get the meds