Individual Health insurance and Enbrel

[Bubbbles2002]

Hello everyone :) Does ANYONE know of ANY individual health plans that will cover Enbrel? I changed jobs and now I have no health insurance and I need my Enbrel back. My psoriasis has slowly been returning and it is making me very upset. Thanks everyone.

[MikeK]

Hi Ashley,

Welcome back! :cool: It's always good to hear from you, but I'm sorry about the reason. I'm sorry to hear that you no longer have insurance.

I don't know anything about individual health insurance plans, but I do know that there are several assistance programs that may be able to help. We don't know very much about most of them, but I can tell you that two people who sometimes post here were able to get Enbrel for free thanks to a program called www.needymeds.com. Miranda (LadyFraser) was able to get assistance from www.needymeds.com while her husband was transitioning from being self employed (with no insurance) to working for the government (with excellent benefits). Links to her story can be found here: http://www.psoriasis.org/forum/showthread.php?t=3979 and in a thread that was started by Leslie (Momtotwogirls). (Leslie took the time to post the links and information about some of assistance programs that she came across. I added the links and information about other programs that people have either told me about or that have been discussed here on the Board. With the exception of www.needymeds.com, we don't know very much about most of these programs, but it can't hurt to check them out.) You also might want to call Enliven Services at 1-888-4ENBREL (1-888-436-2735) to see if you qualify for assistance through the ENcourage Foundation. (The ENcourage Foundation is also discussed in Leslie's thread.

Here's a link to Leslie's thread: http://www.psoriasis.org/forum/showthread.php?t=12379.

Also, Alyssa Brown from the NPF's staff posted some very useful information about assistance programs in this thread: http://www.psoriasis.org/forum/showthread.php?p=236040#post236040.

I hope this helps!

I miss you, so please don't be a stranger.

Good luck! Keep us posted.

Mike

[SCCatman]

If you leave a job with insurance, you have toe right to continune with CORBA at the same rate the old company paid for 18 months.
After CORBA runs out, (in most states) the insurance portablity act requires the same company to offer you a policy, but it will likely be at a higher rate.
In other states, the state will force a company to insure you at a state set price (I am in this program in Ga.) You have to act within a specified time to get CORBA, and after COBRA to get the guanteed poilcy.
My last job, the insurance was 100% paid by the company, on CORBA, I paid $220 a month, about average for someone my age ect. After CORBA, the state of Ga assigned me to Kasier Perminte at $480 a month, the rate that all Georgia guanteed insurance policy holders pay.
My old insurance was in (BS of CA) did not have a presence in Ga or they would have been required to keep me instead.

Also I think I was lucky, I had insurance through an real insurance company after my comany was bought by a mega-conglomerate. Before that I think the company self insured with Atena handing the paoper work. had that still been the case, I don't think I would have been elegiable for the guanteed coverage.

This varies by state, but if you have insurance at work, all states have CORBA follwed by a guanteed program of some sort.

Dennis

[Bubbbles2002]

Thanks you guys. I got the form from Cobra a while back, unfortunately I waited too long. I have been speaking with different companies and none say that there policies will cover Ebrel. I need to look into needy meds.com. I am getting pretty depressed about it lately even though my bf thinks im beautiful no matter what I still want it to be gone!! :(