A qestion about insurance coverage for non-citizens
My father is 82 years old non citizen. He has a US visa though valid for 2 years. He has prostate cancer. He has already tried multiple medications back in my home country that were working for a while but no longer effective (zytiga and xtandi). There is a new immunotherapy therapy medication (provenge) that is available here but not back home. It looks like he can be eligible for coverage according to this: https://www.hca.wa.gov/health-care-services-supports/apple-health-medicaid-coverage/non-citizens I do not understand the first point in the program requirement. Can anyone explain? "The individual must be categorically relatable to a Medicaid program, but not eligible for the Medicaid program solely due to immigration status requirements (which program an individual is related to determines whether they follow the MAGI or Classic Medicaid eligibility rules and application processing);"
He can't buy health insurance either, I think. Companies won't sell insurance (Obamacare as previous post called it) to non US residents. But check anyway. You might choose to just pay out of pocket. But negotiate with hospitals etc to set the best cost in advance.
You cannot buy insurance with pre existing condition. Medicaid is not for foreigner. Your best bet is ask a charity for help.
Btw not a doctor but I followed Provenge's development very closely from 2005 to ~2010 during its trials. I invested in biotechs including the company that developed Provenge. Its method of action was ground breaking at its time. It's approval by FDA was hugely controversial since many experts thought there wasn't sufficient data for efficacy. It never did well in terms of prescriptions after launch. For example, UK national health service decided not to use it based on their cost benefit analysis. I would advise researching cost benefits of the treatment.
Sorry to learn of that. For anyone past 65, they first need to go with eligibility for Medicare and then Medicaid. I'm afraid, on a visitor visa, you cannot get either one. For getting Obamacare, if you figure out eligibility at your own cost, the premium may be very high - try your healthcare exchange website to figure out how much. It's probably 2k-3k per month, if you get it - although, I doubt you can with visitor visa. You may want to go to nearest low cost hospital and see if you can find a social worker to guide you for a cash deal or with a special program at any major University medical school like Stanford, USF, Johns Hopkins, or others. Best wishes!
Thanks for the info. 2~3k is fine. I am already sending around $2k for his medication now. So, I was hoping that there would be some kind of coverage here where I can actually be with my parents and help them.
Unfortunately if your dad is not a GC holder, there isn't any option other than paying out of pocket which will be insanely expensive :-(