Carl Collins (MyFoxPhoenix)
Getting a job, especially these days, is usually a good thing. But for one Arizona family - the extra income disqualifies them for state health insurance, MyFoxPhoenix reported.
Making matters worse, the Collins family needs the insurance desperately. Carl Collins, 56, has cancer and just had a bone marrow transplant to battle it.
Two years ago, Collins was diagnosed with mantle cell lymphoma, a blood cancer. Today, he is healthier after a bone marrow transplant, but his battle now is with Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS) insurance – the state’s Medicaid agency.
The state dropped him from coverage in the middle of the cancer treatment because his wife, who had quit her job a year ago to care for her husband, found new employment.
According to the Collins family, the new job put the family income over the $1,261-a-month limit to qualify for state Medicaid. But without the insurance, the family can’t afford to continue Carl Collins’ treatments.
"He was taking 30 to 35 pills daily for the anti-rejection medication and antibiotics to keep him from getting sick cause he has no immune system," Robin Collins told MyFoxPhoenix.
Robin Collins, whose job pays her $13.50 an hour, said she doesn’t want to quit her job, because the family has five children with two sons still living at home.
"If I quit my job right now, we'd have to go back to DES, get back on food stamps, food card thing. They put us all back on insurance and we would be sitting here with nothing. And that's no way to live – we're hard working people," Robin Collins told MyFoxPhoenix.
In the meantime, Carl Collins sits with no treatment following his bone marrow transplant. The family is trying to raise funds through this website.
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