Reply #90: My brother is in that situation as well and his friends recently had a benefit for him [View All]

[dflprincess]

He has stage 3B lung cancer (inoperable and spread to the lymph nodes at the time of diagnosis in February).

The good news is, the lymph nodes are showing some improvement and the xrays have shown the main tumor is shrinking. He has another CAT scan scheduled near the end of June that will give a better idea of how well the treatments are doing so for now he's getting a few weeks break from chemo and radiation.

The bad news is, he's used up all his PTO and FMLA and his employer is terminating him (yes, it's legal to do this). He works in a warehouse and his job is fairly physical so there's no way he was up to working during the chemo & radiation cycles. He does have both short & long term disability insurance, but it doesn't pay much. I've been covering the insurance premiums so far (3 of his kids still need his insurance as well) but once he's officially terminated, he'll have to go on COBRA and I'm hoping I'll be able to keep the payments up. The kids are all over 18 and I've warned them they may be thrown overboard if I can't afford the family premium.

Situations like this will not change with the insurance scam that was foisted on us.