Financial Concerns - Essay Sample

The first non-medical problem that Katy Adams is experiencing is financial concerns. Katy underwent a divorce, and her husband left her with an enormous debt. Although the court exonerated her husband’s debt after the divorce, Katy still has financial challenges due to the many responsibilities she has. The courts ordered the ex-husband to pay child support, but he has failed to follow his obligation for the past four years since the divorce. First, she is raising three children who all are school-going. Katy got a job with a decent salary that made her afford some of the basic amenities in her household and pay for daycare. However, she cannot afford to pay for daycare since it is too expensive and the charges are $500 every week. However, she was lucky to receive financial assistance from the Department of Social Services. After getting sick and undergoing an operation to remove a tumor in her brain, Katy lost her job, and the DSS said that they would no longer make payments for childcare since she was no longer working.

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Katy can get financial assistance in various ways. First, she should apply for Social Security disability. According to the law, disability is defined as the inability to engage in any substantial activity caused by physical and mental conditions, and that can cause death. To be awarded Social Security Disability benefits, a person’s condition must be medically eligible and their illness prevents them from performing basic tasks (Kofoed, 2017). After the removal of her brain tumor, Katy’s right hand and arm became weak. After beginning chemotherapy, the weakness persisted, and it is getting worse by the day. Thus, she cannot work or perform basic tasks comfortably by herself. With the right arm and hand becoming more disabled, Katy should qualify for the SSD benefits. The financial support she gets will enable her to buy food, clothes, and other basic things in the house as well as pay for childcare.

There are multiple programs in the United States that assist single mothers with financial difficulties which Katy can benefit from. First, there are many community organizations, churches, and religious organizations that offer temporary assistance to single mothers. Katy should approach such organizations or financial assistance until she gets better, and her health improves.

Government support could be of significant assistance to Katy. The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families is a government program in the United States that offers support for single mothers (Kofoed, 2017). Katy can check the eligibility rules and apply.

Katy could also consider Medicaid, which is a public assistance healthcare program for low-income Americans (Kline et al., 2015). She qualifies for the program since she is a citizen of the United States. Katy’s income is insufficient to pay for basic amenities, child care, rent, and medical bills. Having reliable health coverage will assist her in saving money that she would have used from her pocket to pay for medicine, chemotherapy, and other drugs to treat the side effects she is experiencing. It will be easy and straightforward for Katy to qualify for the health coverage program since she is a low-income earner who needs urgent financial help.

There are many government programs that assist single mothers who have extreme challenges when raising their children. Katy could significantly benefit from any of the programs upon application. Or instance, there are food programs like Snap that assist people who are eligible for other forms of social welfare. The Women, infants, and Children (WIC) program provides financial assistance for the purchase of food to mothers with children under five years.

Planning

The second non-medical problem affecting Katy is planning. There are several legal concerns that Katy should be aware of. For instance, it would be advisable for her to determine the person who will make financial and medical decisions on her behalf in case her condition worsens. Her current diagnosis is that she has a grade IV Glioblastoma which is an extremely aggressive malignant tumor that affects brain tissue. The side effects of chemotherapy are taking a toll on her health, and her family thinks that things are getting worse.

The advice that would be best for Katy is to find legal help through a lawyer to identify a trustworthy person who will be making critical decisions on her behalf if her condition worsens. For example, her mother or sisters would be the most appropriate people to be assigned that duty since they are her family and want the best for her. It is also important to identify a guardian since the children need a caregiver in case Katy does not recover from her health condition. At the moment, she is raising the children on her own and cannot afford a child care worker since such services are expensive, and she cannot afford to pay for the services.

Housing Problems

With significant financial difficulties, Katy and her children risk eviction from their current residence. She is no longer working, and the children are still going to school. Thus, finding rent money is challenging. When she as working, the income she as getting was enough to pay for the rent, food, and school fees or the children. Currently, she lives in a small upstairs apartment in an elderly couple’s home in Bayport. Secondly, there is a possibility of utility shut-off concerns. Katy has received a shut-off notice from LIPA for the end of the month if she fails to clear her electricity bill.

The best advice for Katy regarding her housing problem is to seek assistance from her parents. She could go and live with them for a while before she gets better and eventually goes back to work. Her family will be of significant help, especially with the children, since she cannot afford to pay a caregiver at the moment. She could also seek assistance from community programs like charity groups and religious organizations that would temporarily give her shelter and basic amenities for a specific time as she undergoes her treatment.

Letter of Advocacy

I hope that you are doing well.

My name is Veronica Bruce, a general Nurse at The Shepherd’s Hospital. We have received concerns that as an insurance firm, you cannot authorize Provigil since you deem the drug experimental or investigational. My patient, Katy Adams, has undergone brain surgery to remove a grade IV Glioblastoma which is a malignant tumor that invades some critical tissues in the brain. However, the patient has to undergo constant chemotherapy since it is impossible to completely remove the tendrils since it is challenging to visualize them, and the operation may lead to more damage. The patient has extreme fatigue as a major side effect of chemotherapy, and her doctor recommends that Provigil can combat her overwhelming body weakness.

Medically, Provigil is administered to patients with extreme sleepiness that are caused by a variety of illnesses like shift work sleep disorder and obstructive sleep apnea. Thus, the drug belongs to the class of stimulants. There are other drugs that can be used to treat fatigue in patients undergoing chemotherapy, but they pose the risk of developing seizures. According to Katy’s doctor, Provigil can be used to effectively treat the fatigue that she is experiencing since the drug is successfully used to treat patients with sleep-related disorders.

Katy is a mother of three young children, and the side effects of the chemotherapy treatment she is undergoing are severe. She needs to go back to work to fend for her family since she is a single mother and her children are fully dependent on her. However, she cannot work since she is overwhelmed with fatigue.

Due to her condition, Katy cannot afford to pay her medical bills or drug prescriptions for her pocket. As a health insurer, you would do her a significant favor if you authorized the drug since it is already approved by medical officers to be safe and effective for the treatment of fatigue in chemotherapy patients.

I look forward to your response regarding the matter.

References

Kline, R. M., Bazell, C., Smith, E., Schumacher, H., Rajkumar, R., & Conway, P. H. (2015). Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services: using an episode-based payment model to improve oncology care. Journal of Oncology Practice, 11(2), 114-116.

Kofoed, M. S. (2017). To apply or not to apply: FAFSA completion and financial aid gaps. Research in Higher Education, 58(1), 1-39.