Emergency rooms are expensive places to get non-emergency treatment. There are affordable ways to get good medical care, even if your uninsured and/or unemployed. We’ll discuss several options later in this article. If you do find yourself in a hospital emergency room go to the hospital’s billing office a soon as your released and discuss your situation with a service representative. Many hospitals give charitable care to patients who truly can not afford to pay.
Free Help
The Patient Advocate Foundation helps patients with chronic, life threatening, and debilitating diseases access care and treatment. Case managers and their Financial Aid Fund staff are available to talk to you from 8:30 am to 4:00 pm on weekdays. They are closed on weekends and most holidays. The phone number is (800) 532-5274. They help over 100,000 patients every year. There is also a long list of patient helplines available at aPatientsPlace.com. The helplines are organized by category, most popular, and disease.
Find a Free Clinic
If you’re not having an emergency, consider finding a free clinic. You can get both primary and specialty care at most clinics. There are over 1,400 clinics across the U.S. that provide free health care in their community. Here’s the link to find a free clinic.
Low Cost Medication
NeedyMeds.org is a non-profit organization that will help you find programs to pay for your medication. An alphabetical list and phone numbers for more than 100 organizations that provide financial help is available at aPatientsPlace.com.
Clinical Trials
Patients do not pay to participate in studies that test new treatments in development. You can search for clinical trials related to your disease at Clinicaltrials.gov. There are more than 290,000 public and private research studies in the U.S. and around the world currently listed as of Dec. 2018.
Insurance
Medicaid is a federal and state health insurance program for people with limited income.
Eligibility is determined by each state. Go to https://benefits.gov and click on “Healthcare and Medical Assistance.” Choose your state and category “Medicare and Medicaid” to learn about eligibility and how to apply.
Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) provides health coverage for children in families with incomes too high to qualify for Medicaid, but who can’t afford private insurance. Call 877-543-7669 to find out if you qualify and to apply.
Money Saving Benefit Programs
There are thousands of programs that can help patients with medications, care, finances, food, housing, and more. You can easily find your benefits at BenefitsCheckup.org.
If you haven’t found the help you need, fill out the “Ask an Expert” box near the bottom of the home page of aPatientsPlace.com.
Free Advocacy, Guidance, & Support 