Medicare, FMLA, Health Insurance, and living with Cancer

The following link leads to a response to a news story. The poster details some of the difficulties involved in dealing with cancer treatment while trying to maintain employment. As she states, companies will allow an employee to have 84 days off under the provisions of the FMLA, or family medical leave act. After that, she states "who wants to keep an employee who is going to be out of work more than in?".

Other issues cited by the poster involve the difficulty of maintaining employment due to the fatigue brought on by chemotherapy and the resulting quandry caused by the inability to maintain the health insurance provided by an employer. Cobra only allows an employee to maintain their health insurance benefits for 18 benefits (and this is not free---the former employee must pay the premium). However, after this period is up, the individual must attempt to find private insurance, which can be extraordinarily expensive (premiums of up to one thousand per month are not unheard of).

Crucial information that your average person with cancer has to deal with on a daily basis





For information on Social Security Disability, visit the

Social Security Disability SSI Resource Center