WSHIP

My Financial Counselor at SCCA recommended that I apply for Medicaid and WSHIP, which would both be secondary insurance coverages. I, as we expected to be, was denied for Medicaid. I will tell you that going to that office was a rather unpleasant and depressing experience.

The WSHIP, or Washington State High-Risk Insurance Pool, is available to people who apply for health insurance and are denied due to their answers to the company's health questionnaire. So you get a big packet full of information about WSHIP's different plans and associated costs, but no information about what the policy would actually cover.

So I call them and they are interestingly located in Kansas. To make a long story short, for a big chunk of money per month, I elected to sign up. It will act as a secondary on all my medical and prescriptions. It, too, has a co-insurance, but provides me with two important things: 1. A secondary insurance to be billed and 2. The availability to an additional $250,000 lifetime transplant coverage. Essentially, if I should have an organ fail as a result of the bone marrow transplant, I would still have the financial possibility to cover it. But perhaps most important is that I know I have done everything in my power to lessen the possibility of coming home from Seattle owing huge amounts of money.

It fascinates me that the program exists yet is so expensive that I imagine it is not an option for most. It will be interesting to see how it all works out.