40-year-old Norma Mitchell looks through some of her bills since she was diagnosed with breast cancer for the second time in 8 years. "Right now I'm holding $600 worth of bills in my hand, and its just not enough money from disability and to pay my household stuff and pay my medical bills,” says Norma. The LPN hasn't worked in 2 years because she was too sick. She lost her insurance and her savings is gone. "I was able to pay my rent, but I was always struggling for my lights, my gas, my water. Eventually I moved into low income housing," says Norma.
She's living with stage 4 breast cancer which her doctor says is incureable. A 2-year program called Women's Health Medicaid helped pay her bills, but that's over.
Norma gets support now from medicare and programs she finds on the web.
"Medicare pays 80% of the bills and 20% is being billed to me which is still very high because if the bill is $6,000 then I've got $300 to pay, and that's exactly what I'm facing right now, says Norma. Breast cancer has runied Norma financially, but she's still following her doctors orders by working out 3 times a week. The local Amerocam Cancer Society gets hundreds of calls from people in distress like Norma. "All of a sudden maybe your insurance doesn't cover certain things and you're hit with I can't pay my light bill, I can't pay my mortgage. What am I gonna do, and we although the American Cancer Society cannot pay someone's bills we actually have resources that we can help them with," according to Amy Riesinger, ACS Senior Community Manager.
Unfortunately there's not much help, but there are some state and local programs, and a few charities to help people fighting breast cancer. But many like Norma are left staring at bills.
Norma says she's banking on researchers finding a cure, and she hopes she lives to see it.
Here are some valuable resources for you.
The cancer care network lends financial support plus phone chat lines.
Services are also available at the American Cancer Society.
The local ACS number is (912) 355-5196.
Help is also available at The National Cancer Institute.
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