I forgot to answer david52's question regarding claims. No claims. Ever. Along the lines of answering my own question, I checked out the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union to see if they offer policies, and it seems they do. We will contact this guy in Cortez that I've linked to below (in case anyone else is having the same issues). I can't figure out why all the insurance companies are so eager to write a policy for cars - which kill 10's of thousands of American every year - and yet be so squeemish regarding the source of their sustenance (assuming insurance underwriters actually consume food directly; not just second hand through blood). Anyway, I digress. The link: Here is a link that might be useful: Farmers Union insurance link

I would have to disagree with the post that included "Scam beware Cancer Insurance Family Heritage"... "This cancer insurance is a scam."..."...You are much better off not buying this insurance. Put this money in a bank or invest it. You get the interest and get all the money if you can't fund your bank account after 7 years or whenever. Change your diet, exercise and minimize your risk to cancer. Even if your a compulsive smoker. work in an asbestos factory and drink out of styrofoam cups... Don't get this policy, they payout is not worth the premiums. This insurance company is all about screwing you out of your money." My mother in law who has always been pretty healthy (or so we thought), began her policy with Family Heritage in Oct 2010. She was over age 55 so her premiums were kind of high (I thought). With the highest paying cancer coverage, her monthly premium was $108/month. On Dec 17, 2010, she was diagnosed with small cell lung cancer (stage IV) with metastisis. She passed away Oct 27, 2011. From December 2010 to May 2011, she had already received over $30,000 in payments from Family Heritage, and we are awaiting the final payment for the May through Oct (expecting atleast another $17,000). If you are at risk for cancer, it is a good idea! And I know that $47,000 is not much considering the bills for chemo, hospital stays, icu, doctors, etc; but, if you are lucky -as my mother in law was- you will have very good health insurance that covers all of those bills except for office co-pays after your deductible has been met each year. So all of that was hers. Also, if a person dies within the 25 years, the beneficiary receives the life insurance that goes with the policy. So if you pay on it 5 years, don't use it, then pass away, the beneficiary gets the life insurance. However, as in the case of my mother in law, since they paid her well more than the life insurance, her beneficiary did not receive the life insurance. Also, if she had been paid $3,000 from the company, the life insurance amount would have been reduced by the amount paid out. For example: 15,000 life ins -3,000 cancer ins paid to insured= 12,000 life ins payout to beneficiary. Not everyones going to have the same situation (otherwise they would go bankrupt), but I do know that this is what she benefited from her policy and her kids did as well. We got a policy for ourselves as well!

Breenthumb - we used to get those calls too. You are right, they never even tried to tell us they could beat the cost for coverage. My only isse with them is that they wouldn't sell coverage for our DS and DILs house. They bought it in 05, the year after the 4 hurricanes came through central Florida within a month or so of each other. With so many retired military in this area, they stopped new policies on homeowners. We were shocked to hear this but so many insurance companies did the same thing. Anyone who is former military or a dependent of a military can get coverage. Not sure how it works if parent did not have their insurance but its worth checking. Customer service is exemplary!

chisue, understand the lesser of two evils. They use prednisone for my disease too. Thankfully, I've never been bad enough to have to use it on a daily basis. I'm allergic to one of the main drugs to treat my disease so if my current drugs really stops working I will have no choice but to take those awful , dangerous and expensive drugs. Hopefully it will never come to that. I have one older brother that did not move to the States when my family moved and so I've really been thinking about how much easier it was for him to retire in Canada. No jumping through all these hoops to figure out how to get his health care needs covered. Emma, what I understand is that they don't have to insure you if you have had a gap in insurance and are outside the 6 month open enrollment. Our situation was a little confusing to these insurers because our medicare part A automatically kicked in at 65 and our B took effect two years later when my husband turned 67. So they carelessly were just looking at the date part A kicked in and assumed we'd had a two year gap in coverage. Some asked if we'd been on cobra. They were asking for proof of insurance until I reminded them that medicare B was just starting and we were within the 6 month open enrollment. The drug plan still said that if I had not been covered they would have raised my premium.Not sure if that is legal under the 6 month open enrollment, but I didn't research it anymore sine it didn't apply to me. In my case, if I went without and then ended up going on one of those $3000 a month drugs and then decided at that time to get part D, no one would be too excited to insure me . And you can bet if one of my drugs was $3000 a month and they agreed to insure me, my premium would be pretty hefty. Our total costs for the two of us are around $480 a month United(AARP) is $116.78 for me, $121.94 for my husband. It is community based which means they can't raise your premium just because you are a year older. It goes up according to your zip code. In my state there were only two options for community based or issue age --the two that can't be raised because you are a year older. All the others were attained age which will go up for each year older you get. Then medicare B is $99.90 for each of us. I'm paying $27 for my part D and my husband picked the cheapest for 15 a month. I didn't figure it was as important to get the perfect plan with drug because it apparently is easy to change at the end of the year if what you picked didn't work out so well. It just seemed to me that there was a real learning curve to getting this all arranged. Dedtired, I'm confused why you would be paying 300 a month for medicare part B or something else?? something doesn't sound right.