Managing Finances and Covering the Mortgage During Cancer Treatment

When Rhonda Broussard got an invoice for part of her breast cancer treatment, she freaked out. "I didn't plan for this!" the New Orleans-based nonprofit founder and CEO recalled thinking. She had grown accustomed to getting proactive calls from her hospital, offering financial help and information before receiving any treatment. This invoice appeared with no warning. "I had planned for what I'm doing with my money this year," she explained. Unexpected medical bills had not been in her plan.

Though Broussard could absorb the bill, many cancer patients face financial challenges due to medical expenses, lost wages and other expenses such as child care, transportation and parking during treatment.

As medical debts pile up, housing insecurity grows. No one should have to face this kind of financial anxiety to keep their household afloat during cancer treatment, but many do.

This guide will help people with cancer and their advocates understand the financial support available to help ease seemingly insurmountable financial burdens.

Health insurers increasingly recognize the importance of housing to overall health. Several health insurers have invested in housing support programs, and some have social workers on staff who can help identify resources to help people facing financial hardship.

Health insurance won’t cover all your medical costs or your non-medical bills. But knowing the details of your insurance plan can help you budget and manage your other expenses so you can continue to afford your home. Your out-of-pocket maximum, deductible, copayments and coinsurance can add up; planning for these costs can help you mitigate the damage cancer can do to your personal finances.

Disability insurance can help bridge some gaps by covering living expenses, including housing.

• What Is Disability Insurance?

Disability insurance provides you with some or all of your income if you can’t work because of an illness or disability. Short-term disability insurance covers you for short periods, typically three to six months. Long-term disability insurance applies when you’re unable to work for longer periods, usually more than six months.

• How Does It Work?

Different types of disability insurance have different rules and prices and are offered by a wide range of insurers. Disability insurance typically requires a waiting period — called the elimination period — before you can get benefits. How long that period lasts, how long benefits last and what qualifies as a disability are some of the variables that affect the price.

• Where Can You Obtain It?

You can buy disability insurance on your own, get it through your employer or get it from your state or the Social Security Administration if you meet strict eligibility requirements.

• When Should You Get It?

You can't get disability insurance once you've been diagnosed, so it's essential to get it while you're healthy. If you're offered disability at work, consider taking it. Some employers automatically provide disability insurance. If you already have cancer, check with your employer; you may already have a basic level of coverage.

Lay out your likely costs so you can create a budget and determine if you'll have trouble paying for housing. An important first step is to understand what insurance covers and your share of the cost for covered services and treatments.

1. To get your arms around your likely costs, learn important insurance terms. A health insurance glossary can help you understand insurance terms such as copayment, coinsurance, deductible, network and out-of-pocket maximum.
2. Next, get comfortable asking questions — not just about treatment options but also about cost. Your doctor, hospital, pharmacy and health plan can all be sources of information about, possibly help with, your medical costs.
3. Get creative. For example, Rhonda Broussard fully funded her health savings account (HSA). HSA's enable you to use pre-tax contributions for medical bills. Once she had spent the amount she had put in her HSA, she worked with the hospital to set up an interest-free payment plan with minimum monthly payments until she could fund her HSA again.

Out-of-pocket costs are health care expenses that insurance does not pay. These costs can add up. If you know what they’re likely to be, you can more easily assess if you’ll be able to afford to pay them plus your other expenses, especially housing.

Always ask what something will cost before you get care. Your costs can depend on many factors that can be hard to predict ahead of time. Still, if you don’t get clear answers, persist.

Surprise medical bills often arise from costs people don’t think to ask about. Make a list of what you could get charged for and ask about them. Then, ask what else you could get charged for that you didn’t know to ask. Some costs you can expect include:

• Doctor or other provider visits
• Lab tests
• Clinic visits for treatments
• Procedures
• Imaging tests
• Radiation treatments
• Drugs that you get in the hospital
• Drugs that you take at home
• Hospital stays
• Surgery
• Home health care visits

If it looks like you might have a problem paying your medical costs along with your rent or mortgage, ask for help to manage the medical expenses. Try to negotiate or at least ask the provider what your options are. It can be awkward to discuss money or admit you're worried but remember you are not alone. And, you might be able to set up a manageable monthly payment plan.

Figure out what your expenses are. Scrutinize your credit card statement to see if there are any regular expenses such as subscriptions and other recurring monthly expenses that you can cancel or scale back. Make as much room in your ongoing budget as you can for upcoming medical bills.

Once you’ve trimmed what you can, create a tentative budget based on what you know so far about your likely income and expenses.

If your initial budget looks bleak, try not to despair. Facing your financial worries is the first step in finding solutions. On the other hand, even if it seems like you'll make ends meet, you should still consider seeing if you can lower your housing expenses.

You may be able to shave costs by refinancing your mortgage. Refinancing involves getting a new loan with better terms and using it to pay off the original mortgage. To see if you can save enough to make refinancing costs worthwhile, use current interest rates to calculate what your costs would be for a refinance.

When you refinance, you’ll probably start a new 30-year term to maximize monthly savings. Though clock resets, improving cash flow may be worth the time you’re adding to the mortgage.

If you’ve built up a lot of equity in your home, you may be able to do a cash-out refinance, where you can get cash to help with bills and add that amount to your loan balance.

Private mortgage insurance (PMI) adds costs to a mortgage when the loan value is more than 80% of the home’s value. If you’ve built up equity or your home’s value has increased, you may be able to cancel PMI, but you may have to refinance your mortgage to get those savings.

When you take out a mortgage, most lenders require you to have an escrow account, which is an account that your lender will use to pay your property taxes and homeowner’s insurance. Each month, part of your mortgage payment funds your escrow account.

You might be able to save hundreds of dollars a month by reducing your escrow payments. A few strategies to lower these payments include:

If your mortgage payments are a hardship during cancer treatment, contact your lender as soon as you can to avoid foreclosure. They may be willing to work with you. Relief may come in the form of more flexible payment terms – that you’ll have to agree and adhere to – or as actual relief from some of your obligations. Being proactive and discussing your situation may unlock options you didn’t realize you had. Government agencies and policies are designed to help people stay in their homes and avoid foreclosure if possible.

State programs may be available to provide mortgage assistance or other affordable housing support. Some of those programs include:

• Hardest Hit Fund

This fund is financed by the federal government and serviced by the state government. It helps homeowners avoid foreclosure.

• Homeowner’s Hope Hotline

Call 888-995-HOPE (4673) for HUD-approved housing counseling to explore options.

• State Housing Financing Agencies (HFA)

These organizations are state-chartered authorities that help individuals and families access affordable housing.

• U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)

HUD offers a list of HUD-approved local counseling resources.

• Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Amidst economic devastation from the COVID-19 pandemic, new mortgage relief measures have been instituted by the coronavirus relief bill, including a temporary moratorium on foreclosures and evictions and an explicit right to request forbearance for up to a total of 360 days.

• U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)

In the wake of the Great Recession of 2008, HUD created several programs to help homeowners avoid foreclosure. Several of these programs ended in 2016.

Platforms like GoFundMe and MightyCause can help patients raise money to support housing and other costs during treatment. As medical bills rise and consumers struggle to pay for care, even with insurance, people increasingly turn to crowdfunding platforms. On GoFundMe, more than $1.5 billion has been raised for health care costs across approximately 250,000 campaigns each year. Relying on fundraising may not be the safest best. Estimates suggest most campaigns do not reach their goals. Still, it can’t hurt to try this approach.

Using photos, sharing your story and amplifying your message on social media are strategies that improve your chances of success.

If you start a crowdfunding fundraiser, there are several platforms to choose from, but their focus, fees and rules vary. Some that you may have heard of don’t allow individual fundraisers.

Beyond direct crowdfunding campaigns, there are creative ways to raise funds to pay for cancer treatment and related costs. Selling t-shirts, making and selling a cookbook, or hosting events can raise money and rally friends, family members and acquaintances behind the cause.

When you're battling cancer or living with disabilities due to cancer, there may be modifications that will make your living situation more comfortable, like adding a ramp or safety features like a shower seat and grab bars.

There are many organizations that can help you make your home safe and accessible.

• National Resource Center on Supportive Housing and Home Modification

This organization offers a directory of home modification resources across the country.

• Rebuilding Together

Rebuilding Together is a national network of volunteers who repair homes for people with disabilities. You can find your local organization at the website.

• Rehabilitation Engineering Society of North America (RESNA) Catalyst Project

RESNA provides a directory of state financial assistance programs for home modification.

• Rural Housing Repair Loans and Grants Program

This organization offers low-interest loans to low-income, rural homeowners for repairs and updates. State-specific housing loans are also available for individuals living in rural areas.

• U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)

The VA provides specially adapted housing grants, special housing adaptation grants and temporary residence adaptations for veterans who need financial assistance to modify their homes.

Even if you can manage out-of-pocket health care costs during cancer treatment, your other living expenses can feel overwhelming. There are many resources to help cancer patients with non-medical expenses.

• Hope Lodge

The American Cancer Society offers cancer patients and caregivers free places to stay near their treatment site through Hope Lodge.

• Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)

TANF provides cash grants for low-income people to help with housing and other expenses.

• United Way 211 program

This comprehensive program connects people to resources for housing as well as other expenses.

• Citizens Energy

This is a nonprofit organization that offers discounted energy services to low-income households.

• Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

The FCC administers the Lifeline program to help low-income households lower monthly phone and internet bills.

• ModestNeeds

This organization provides self-sufficiency grants, which are designed to help people facing emergency financial needs pay for those emergencies or monthly expenses. These grants are for people who live just above the poverty line and do not qualify for low-income support.

• TANF

TANF provides help to low-income people pay for food, clothing, utilities, transportation, household expenses and housing.

• <a href=""https://www.acf.hhs.gov/ocs/liheap-state-and-territory-contact-listing target="_blank">U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

HHS’s Office of Community Services offers a Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program and other social service support systems.

SUBSIDIZED HEALTH INSURANCE

You might qualify for more generous health insurance coverage through Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security Disability Insurance, or Supplemental Security Income. If you’re eligible, these benefits can protect you from more of your medical costs. Certain cancers qualify for compassionate allowances, which means the Social Security Administration can make eligibility determinations more quickly.

MEDICATION ASSISTANCE

There are many ways to get help paying for medications, through nonprofit organizations, retail pharmacy discount programs or pharmaceutical assistance programs, provided you do not have government health insurance. If you’re eligible for Medicaid, covered prescriptions will be very low cost, and if you’re eligible for Medicare, <a href="SUBSIDIZED HEALTH INSURANCE You might qualify for more generous health insurance coverage through Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security Disability Insurance, or Supplemental Security Income. If you’re eligible, these benefits can protect you from more of your medical costs. Certain cancers qualify for compassionate allowances, which means the Social Security Administration can make eligibility determinations more quickly.

MEDICATION ASSISTANCE There are many ways to get help paying for medications, through nonprofit organizations, retail pharmacy discount programs or pharmaceutical assistance programs, provided you do not have government health insurance. If you’re eligible for Medicaid, covered prescriptions will be very low cost, and if you’re eligible for Medicare, Medicare Part D can help you pay for medications." target="_blank">Medicare Part D can help you pay for medications.

Proper nutrition is especially important during cancer treatment. The disease and the treatments may affect how and what you eat and what your body needs to stay strong.

Cost should not get in the way of getting the nutrition you need to fight cancer. Resources are available.

• Feeding America

Feeding America is a national network of food banks and connects people to local programs.

• Meals on Wheels

This program delivers meals to older people’s homes. You can find local programs and see if you qualify online or call them at 888-998-6325.

• National Hunger Hotline

If you have immediate food needs, call the National Hunger Hotline at 866-3-HUNGRY to find local programs and see if you’re eligible.

• Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC)

WIC helps low-income women who are pregnant or postpartum with supplemental nutritional food.

• Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)

SNAP, formerly the Food Stamp Program, helps people pay for food at grocery stores. SNAP benefits are administered locally, so research your state or local programs or call 800-221-5689 to locate the right program in your area.

• American Cancer Society

This large organization offers information and resources to help people manage the cost of cancer care.

• American Red Cross

Most people are familiar with the Red Cross. It provides financial assistance for active and retired military members and their families.

• Cancer Finances

This directory from Samfund catalogs organizations that provide financial support for people with cancer.

• Family Reach

Family Reach is a program that provides some direct financial assistance and helps cancer patients understand and navigate health insurance costs.

• Mercy Medical Angels

This group funds air and ground transportation costs for patients who travel for treatment.

• National Organization for Rare Disorders

This organization helps patients with certain cancers get financial help for medication, other health services and travel for their treatment.

• Patient Advocate Foundation

This foundation helps people navigate health care and health insurance and offers limited financial assistance programs for specific conditions.

• Samfund

Samfund gives financial support to young adults who are fighting or are in remission from cancer.