Anonymous:
I'm about to get kicked off my parents' health insurance plan because I'm too old to stay on it or whatever. The problem is that I don't have a job with health benefits. What are my options? I'm generally healthy, but I'm on a couple prescriptions, and I don't really know how I'm going to pay after I'm not insured. :/
Ugh, sorry friend. That stinks.
Your options right now are:
- Talk to your current doctor about getting you on an affordable medication regimen with $4 drugs.
- buy insurance (expensive)
- sign up for a healthcare plan on healthcare.gov in the fall when signup time comes around (only slightly less expensive)
- find out if you might qualify for Medicaid (also check healthcare.gov or medicaid.gov)
- Search for local free clinics and apply and see if you qualify
- Search for cash-pay clinics or “concierge clinics” that allow you to pay a monthly membership fee for primary care
- Call local clinics (especially residency clinics, if you’re in a larger city with an internal medicine or family medicine program) and find out if they take cash-pay patients, and if they offer a sliding-scale fee system or payment plans.
- Search for a health care center that can provide you with free or inexpensive primary care here.
