Insurance

I'm worried about my insurability, whenever I move back to the States.

This is what another cancer survivor wrote to me about insurance.

"The deal with breast cancer: When you have been treated for early stage breast cancer, you have a 10% (stage 1) to 20% (stage 2) of metastatic recurrence in the 10 years after treatment. Once you have been clean for ten years, you are statistically 'cured'. Your odds of developing a new cancer are the same as the general population. So between the time the doctors declare that you have "no evidence of disease" and the time that you have been clean for 10 years, you are ineligible for a new individual health insurance policy (at least one that will treat breast cancer, its complications, or a recurrence). After the 10 year mark, getting a policy is the same as anyone else."

"This is generally bad news for breast cancer survivors, especially since many women want to make a work change after surviving breast cancer. There is a work around, however. This ineligibility applies only to individual policies. You can still get a group policy (i.e., through an employer). Some of the women in my support group have done the following: they hire a part time employee or create a firm with other part-time freelancers, then they get a group policy for their company or firm. You only need one other person to create a group plan. And if you work part time for a company, you are still eligible for health insurance and they can't question your health history."

"Please note that different types of cancer have different remission periods. For lymphoma you may be considered statistically 'cured' after less than 10 years. I don't know what that number is. I learned what little I know on the subject from my support group for young breast cancer survivors. You should eventually find a lymphoma group or a young survivors group (i.e., Young Survival Coalition) to help you navigate the issue."

I hunted around on the net and found some young survivor's groups. None that are specific to non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, let alone my particular type of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (which only affects 2% of all patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma). Here are the links:

www.seventyk.org
www.imtooyoungforthis.org
www.planetcancer.org
www.fertilehope.org

I haven't checked out any of them yet, but I plan to do so soon. Whew, I could really spend weeks and weeks just doing research on my cancer, it seems. My brain already feels overloaded from all the information I'm cramming in.