Cancer Insurance for Children

Should your child be diagnosed with cancer you will certainly be distraught and the last thing you want to think about is finances. Soon reality will set in and you will have to think about it therefore this article may at first glance appear to be to pragmatic for you. Here are a few facts you will need to know as you move forward in the process of carrying for you child.

If your company provides group medical insurance, take the time to see what is being offered and options for cancer treatment. You may be without medical insurance for you family, but don’t despair as most states offer some type of low cost health insurance for eligible children. Your child must be younger than 18 and your family income is or below 200% of the Federal poverty line for a family of the size involved. The program covers doctor visits, medicines, hospitalizations, dental care, eye care, and medical equipment. Each state may some variation in what is required or offered.

First, no health plan covers all of the cost of hospitalization, surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, medicines, state-of-the-art equipment and procedures, and a medical professionals time. Not everything that is ordered or prescribed will be approved or reimbursed by your health insurance plan, therefore you need to work closely with your doctor and hospital administrative staff to assure that proper care is provided yet not sink you financially.

You will be spending a lot of time on the phone, lots of paperwork, ongoing follow-up, and careful record keeping. When your main focus is on your sick child this is a lot to add to your schedule and all the other problems the illness can cause.

Added to the cost of the medical cost, there is transportation, a place to stay during treatment, food, and child care for the other children in your family. These cost are never considered when you are buying insurance and usually not part of your health plan. If you have to take time off of work, there is the, “The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) of 1993” that protects employees from job loss during these hard times. The FMLA provides employees with up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave per year. It also requires that the employee’s group health benefits be maintained during the leave.

It is imperative that you maintain good health insurance as you never know what is in your family’s medical future. The two basic plans are Group and Individual Plans. Types of health plans are, Indemnity, fee-for-service, or traditional health plans, managed care health plans such as Health maintenance organization (HMO), Preferred provider plan (PPO), and Point of service (POS) plan. Then you have many other facets of insurance that could possibly pertain to you, therefore would need to go on line to research and study or talk to your company insurance manager or an insurance agent.