There are a lot of people with MS that find that the hardest part of living with MS is not the fatigue, the muscle weakness, the vision or bowel problems, but the nasty little thing called insurance.

It is needless to say that it’s important to have insurance if you are diagnosed with MS, and if you have MS symptoms, you will want to make sure that you have a very good insurance. Why? Because you will want to have a health insurance plan that will be able to administrate the cost of expensive but vitally important treatments!

For most people, the treatments prescribed will help them relieve neurologic deficits and shorten exacerbations so that they can resume a normal lifestyle. This involves drugs like Interferon or Glatiramer Acetate, which are costly immune modulating therapies – and les’t not get into the cost of steroids. Besides these, there are plenty other drugs which can be administered, including Tizanidine, Diazepam, Baclofen and such.

Besides the treatment, MS patients also need to apply supportive measures, like bed rest, massages, bowel training, antibiotics, physical therapy and/or counseling, alongside speech therapy, occupational therapy, et cetera. It’s needless to say that all of these are costly.

Now, the thing is that unless a patient is diagnosed with MS, then he or she is not considered HIPPA eligible and he or she doesn’t qualify for a High Risk Pool, Portability plan, or Cobra. It’s needless to say that trying to find this type of health insurance policy on the individual market is zero. So, this is why it’s important to have a good health insurance prior to being diagnosed with MS. It’s very important to keep covered, and you need to be insured under the two federal laws, meaning HIPAA and Cobra since these will allow you to maintain your coverage and continued eligibility from your health insurance if your coverage ends!

So what if you are diagnosed with MS but you don’t have insurance? Then you need to fight for Medicaid. To be eligible for Medicaid you need to confirm that you are an US citizen and you need to meet the applicant status requirements and see if you income meets their guidelines. Of course, Medicaid only provides insurance if you have no income or your income is very low, and will only partially help one with the full treatment costs. However, it’s better than nothing.

So what if you are not covered by Cobra or HIPAA? Then you need to try to find a company that is willing to offer you a decent health insurance. There are quite a few options, and here is a list of insurance companies which you can try:

http://www.gamacdonald.com/multiple-sclerosis-health/

and

http://www.ehealthinsurance.com/

While the first link is for Indiana residents only, the second link provides insurance for other states and Canada, and it gives you the possibility to get a free quote in under 11 minutes and their prices start with as low as $31 per month.

There is also the case when you are self employed. In this case, need to participate in the individual insurance market and purchase the very best plan available. However, you should also contact the National Organization for Rare Disorders since they will be able to help you the costs of you treatments.