CHARLOTTE, North Carolina — After a year of chemo and radiation, doctors told Penelope “Penny” Wingard in 2014 that her breast cancer was in remission. She’d been praying for this good news. But it also meant she no longer qualified for a program in her state that offers temporary Medicaid coverage to patients undergoing active breast cancer treatment.
Wingard became uninsured. She’d survived the medical toll, but the financial toll was ongoing.
Bills for follow-up appointments, blood tests, and scans quickly piled up. Soon, her oncologist said he wouldn’t see her until she paid down the debt.
