Currently I am struggling to stay working while dealing with this type of arthritis. I am about to exhaust my short teem disability and FMLA. My doctor wants me to take for long term disability and quit working. The stress of being an operations manager is killing me pretty much. I have one infection after another because of the Remicade and the fatigue is unbearable some days. My question us how does health care work with disability? I am not married and have a small child but I thought social security said you have to wait 25 months before you can get health insurance. I can’t imagine not getting the Remicade for two years.
I am not sure I can answer this for you but I can help you to places where the answer might be. There is a group (if you look under "groups" above on the header) that is about disability. Someone there might know if you post the question.
Do you have LTD insurance through work? Does that include health insurance? If you are looking at SSDI know that it can take a year or two to qualify so you may want to start it now. In my state there is an insurance that kicks in prior to getting medicaid/medicare which is the insurance that is used for people on SSDI. It does not pay for Remicaid here so you may want to check on it in your state. I don't believe medicare/medicaid will pay for Remicade either but you may want to check. I am sure there are web sites for that.
I had a disability policy I had taken out when my son was young. I had forgotten about it but that is what I used when I had to stop working and then I applied for SSDI and received that too. I could have applied for health insurance through my employer with COBRA but it is terribly expensive. Instead I moved myself and my son to my husband's policy and there is no increase in his portion of the cost.
I do not know how Obamacare may change this for you.
If you need health insurance not related to your disability status, you have until March 31st to sign up for a private plan, most likely with a subsidy to make it more affordable, from your state insurance exchange. If your state did not set up their own exchange, you can go to https://www.healthcare.gov/ For estimates, use your adjusted gross income.
If you cannot go online for some reason, you can call to start or finish an application, compare plans, enroll or ask a question.
1-800-■■■■■■■■
TTY: 1-855-■■■■■■■■
Available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Things might be busy right now due to the deadline crunch, but if you call to discuss your potential disability status someone will help you through it.
The waiting period is for medicare, but medicare is not cheap and doesn't cover most of the biologicals and excludes you from all most all drug company assistance programs.
Marietta is correct at very the very least get started on the exchange today. They have extended the deadline if you are in process.
Just because your doc says you should quit/get disability doesn't mean you will get it very quickly or at all especially id yopu are under 50
Yes, forgot to add, as Lamb said, if you have your application STARTED by March 31st, you meet the deadline. It doesn't have to be COMPLETE by March 31st.
I have very good insurance at work right now and the short term disability covers me with insurance for 5 more months. I will check out the other resource pages thank you all for your responses. I am in my early thirties and did not think I would have to give up my career so soon after getting it.
If you are continually having infections because of the Remicade and still have overwhelming fatigue, you should talk to your dr. about switching medications. If your job is in danger because of poor treatment outcomes, it is past time to take action! I don't know how long it has been since you were diagnosed, but you cannot have gone through all the biologics. I've been rotating through them at a fast clip and after 12 years on biologics still have one more to try.
You say your doctor wants you to apply for long-term disability, but is this what YOU want to do?
It takes most folks a few tries to get disability, as they want to make sure you really are truly permanently disabled. The burden of proof is high, probably more so at your age than for someone thirty years older than you. As you may know, it's not designed to be used while you find a good drug therapy, then back to work.
If you are eligible for FMLA, you must be working for a company with more than a handful of employees. Is there another job within the company you could move to? Any way to make the job you have now less stressful? With the system we currently have, it sounds like finding a way to continue to work is in your best interests. Even through Obamacare, without an income they will shunt you back to your state to apply for Medicaid.( The subsidies are to make insurance affordable for the working poor, not to make it accessible to the unemployed). Everything Lamb said about Medicare is even more true of Medicaid: it disqualifies you from the drug makers' copay assistance programs for the biologics, it doesn't cover them anyway, and best of luck trying to find a rheumy (or any other specialist you may need) who will accept it.
As Lamb said, if you were to get disability you would be eligible for Medicare after two years, but that isn't a great solution. I suppose you are also the bringer of insurance for your kiddo- more complications.
Have you tried other biologics?
Yes ibjabe been on 4 biologics with remicafe being the only one to work so far. I have had horrible reactions to humira and enbrel. The drugs tried before the biologics made me so sick I could barely function. I just feel like I am fighting a loosing battle and working is killing me faster. I was off work for 12 weeks last summer due to a severe case of pneumonia and have already been out 5 more weeks since January. Between the arthritis and being sick all the time. I am tired of fighting to get just fix one thing to have another go wrong. I am thankful for everything God has given me in life I just wanted some guidance from people going through all this also. I kept thinking once rhis medicine works it will get better and I can go back to being the independent career woman but that has not happened. I fix one issue and two more pop up
You mention that you have "good insurance" through work. Have you reviewed your benefits to see if your employer offers long term disability insurance as part of your benefits package? Not all do, of course, but it is worth checking if you do not already know. Such private LTD insurance sometimes includes continuing your employer provided medical insurance and may even pay the premiums. Other policies bridge the gap between short term disability and when medicare kicks in. It is worth checking to see what you may have.
In any case, it is important that you make sure you understand the financial realities of long term disability overall. Obviously medical insurance is the big concern but there are other considerations. It should be your informed decision, not just something your doctor told you to do. As difficult as it can be when you are not feeling well, it is important to look at you options and verify as much as you can. There is a lot to think about.