What does an American without health insurance do if they or their child has cancer / serious disease?

Surely, there must be schemes/free hospitals etc ?What does an American without health insurance do if they or their child has cancer / serious disease?If the person (or the person's parents) are low income they can go on Medicare/Medicaid. If the person is not low income but still doesn't have insurance they're going to have to be more creative.



For children there are private hospitals throughout the country which help children with chronic/terminal illnesses free of charge. A few that I can think of off the top of my head are St. Jude's, Doernbechers, and Shriners.



For adults there are fewer hospitals that specifically treat for free, but many regular hospitals have charity options that will charge the person on a sliding scale based on their income.



Many Americans will go to community churches and ask for emotional and financial help from the congregation if they are having a chronic medical issue.



There is also naturopathic care. Many people don't use it because they are not aware of it, and still others are aware of it but don't try it because it's not FDA approved, but it is WAY cheaper and-in the experience of my friends and family members-actually MORE effective. So it is definitely a viable option, it's just not regularly practiced.What does an American without health insurance do if they or their child has cancer / serious disease?There are many resources available through many

cancer sites on the web:

These are a few of them:

http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/facts鈥?/a>

http://www.cancer.net/patient/Publicatio鈥?/a>



For a child of low income families, there is:

Childrens Health Insurance Program (CHIP)

http://www.cms.hhs.gov/home/chip.asp

and

http://www.ibx.com/health_plans/low_inco鈥?/a>



For the entire low income families:

Health Insurance for Low Income Families

http://www.health-insurance.org/low-inco鈥?/a>



There is also an advocate site that help family locate

insurance:

Patient Advocate Foundation

Solving insurance and healthcare Access problems:

1-800-532-5274

http://www.patientadvocate.org/What does an American without health insurance do if they or their child has cancer / serious disease?You stick responsible upstanding citizens like me with the bill.