Should I stop my double insurance coverage recovering from bone marrow transplant?
Last year I was diagnosed with leukemia the same week I was laidoff from my corporate job. I tried to get a new job lined up before my first chemo session (usually a month, in-patient at the hospital) but couldn’t, so I went on COBRA to extend my primary medical insurance coverage with United Healthcare. Because of the cancer diagnosis, I also qualified for 3 years of Medicaid coverage through Molina, which has kept my medical bills down to $0 between the two.
I’m now about 13 months from my initial diagnosis, and 8 months from the bone marrow transplant I needed to go into remission. I haven’t relapsed but I do struggle with recovery hiccups like COVID, the flu, and Graft-Host disease while I’m immunocompromised.
My COBRA coverage is set to end this fall, at 18 months from diagnosis. I’m currently paying about $700 a month to have United Healthcare as my primary insurance, while Molina PLUS-STAR is free through Medicaid.
Should I go ahead and let my COBRA extension end now that I’m not in the hospital / getting chemo / cancer-ridden anymore? I am still unemployed and receiving disability while I recover from the transplant, so that $700 a month could really help other places of our life trying to get back to normal. Is Medicaid coverage usually sufficient for basic things like check-ups, dental, vision? Am I wasting my money having two insurances?
