Warning - some of the descriptions may get somewhat unpleasantly graphic. And, this post is going to be something of a downer.
I live in NJ, my friend used to live here, but now lives with his GF in North Carolina.
He grew up under, shall we say, less than ideal circumstances. Oldest of 3 kids, dad left when he was in his early teens.
He'd always been overweight, though his dad was as well. Never been a junk food eater, though.
And, well, as he'd admit, he'd been a little stupid with money, what little he had, in his younger days. Tried to be responsible with that later in life. Oh, dad's got money, by the way, but dad couldn't even be bothered to keep insurance on his kids, etc. Unfortunately, mom never went after him for **09** support.
In any case, fast forward at least a decade or two. Over the course of his late 20s, definitely by the time he hit 30, he developed Crohn's disease. Not just "annoying Crohn's" but at a level that a leading specialist on the disease told him that he was one of the top 5 worst cases he'd ever seen of it.
He tried to continue to work, but eventually had to stop - yet still had to fight with the state to be considered disabled (that problem was solved when the state made him see particular doctors they chose to "prove" he wasn't disabled... within 5 minutes, those doctors rushed him to a hospital)
His life can sometimes devolve into throwing up blood/acid a dozen or more times a day. What comes out the other end is no better, nor is what comes out of his back or abdominal wall, as his intestines have decided to create fistulas running from them to his skin.
So, in essence, he cannot lift heavy weight anymore (he used to be really strong), and he cannot sit in one place for more than 30 minutes, as his intestines get irritated and start leaking blood through said fistulas.
In other words, he's screwed. He eventually DID get approved for disability, though.
Oddly, in the last year or two, he's developed diabetes. This is odd because he doesn't drink, he doesn't eat sugary foods, etc., in fact, his diet is mostly limited to very plain boiled chicken, or plain boiled fish. Sometimes he can have a SMALL amount of things outside of that, but he's usually taking a gamble with pissing off his Crohn's when doing so. Also, ginger seems to sometimes help relieve the pain - the zillion pain killers and medications he's been prescribed don't seem to have a particularly noteworthy effect.
Strangely, it seems that if he eats what is recommended to soothe the Crohn's, it makes diabetes worse (not sure why), and if he tries to eat to balance out the diabetes, well, then the Crohn's gets set off.
I've actually seen a photo of his abdomen being extremely swollen on the left half only, due to having flown in a plane for an hour. ONE hour.
Now something's up with his spine - I'm not real clear on this, but the doctors might be talking fusing two of his vertebrae.
Now today - he's been having issues. Bad ones. As in, his girlfriend told me the doctor's expression was absolutely horrified, and she wanted him to go to the hospital ASAP. He sort of backed off, saying he'd go if he started feeling worse.
His girlfriend is worried, and stressed. He obviously cannot pay for doctors, hospitals, etc., In fact, he now owes over $10K for what Medicaid would NOT cover.
I'm not sure how they expect him to pay that. Will they dock his disability checks?
What can he do? He will never be able to work, and he will never be able to pay off what he owes already, yet his doctor thinks he should go to the hospital NOW. This is something that is probably NOT going to stop.
He's 40, by the way.
I'm at a loss, and so is his girlfriend. The mounting medical bills stress him out. Stress is, naturally, one of the things that can exacerbate Crohn's.
What can he do to get his medical costs covered? I wouldn't even know where to begin to ask around, and his girlfriend is only familiar with dealing with Medicaid. She's supposedly talked to the various doctors, and hospitals, and they've helped out, but that still leaves them with over $10K in bills, and he worries about that being multiplied with all the care he's going to need.
I just have no idea what to do to see that he can get fully covered - that's really the only option for him. Either that or suffer. Or rack up medical bills until he has to declare bankruptcy, then start the process of racking up medical bills all over again. Apparently he's done that twice already... doesn't seem like a real long term solution.
This all sounds like a major downer, but is there any way he has to ease this burden financially? Any other resources he can use to help with the medical costs? I'm really completely out of my element here.
Any sort of guidance would be VERY greatly appreciated.