Let’s face it when you are uninsured getting any illness is a major concern.
When you discover that breast lump or thickening, that you know you need to have checked out, it can paralyze you with fear. First you are terrified of what it might be and all that goes with a diagnosis of breast cancer. Then you are in a panic about how you will afford treatment, if it is breast cancer.
Don’t go the route of asking girl friends, family members, or even women you find on female web sites as to what they think might be happening in your breast. You need to be seen by a doctor.
But you have no insurance. Where do you go? What do you do when you are uninsured?
First, visit or call your local hospital’s social services department. Once you reach social services, explain that you are uninsured. Ask about accessing the Federal Center for Disease Control’s National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program (NBCCEDP), which “provides low-income, uninsured, and underserved women access to timely breast and cervical cancer screening and diagnostic services.”The NBCCEDP provides underserved women between the ages of 40-64 with: clinical breast examinations; mammograms testing if results are abnormal; referrals to treatment.
Do not allow your age, be it under 40 or over 64, to deter you from reaching out and explaining your situation to your local hospital social worker. There are ways to get care no matter what your age and the hospital social worker can help point you in the right direction.
If it turns out that you do have breast cancer you can get financial help for treatment through the government’s Breast and Cervical Cancer Prevention and Treatment Act, which allows women who ordinarily wouldn’t qualify for Medicaid to access Medicaid funds for breast cancer treatment. However, in order to qualify for this special Medicaid, you have to have been diagnosed through the NBCCEDP, described above.
You can also call your local Dept. of Health and ask them to guide you in accessing services from the Federal Center for Disease Control’s National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program (NBCCEDP),
