Health and Disease
Helping Those with Limited Finances
The cost of healthcare increases every year leaving many people struggling to pay for rising insurance premiums and medical bills. In just two years (between 2015 and 2017), the cost of healthcare rose 14 percent.
The resources below provide assistance for families on fixed budgets and seniors on Medicare looking for the healthcare they need.
Medicare Rights Center
- Established in 1989, the Medicare Rights Center is a nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring people living with disabilities and older adults have access to affordable health care.NeedyMeds.org
- This national nonprofit provides a wealth of information about drug assistance programs and affordable healthcare options.MedicareAdvantage.com
- This website offers a helpful breakdown of prescription drug assistance programs by state for people who are and are not enrolled in Medicare.My Medicare Matters
- Created by the National Council on Aging, My Medicare Matters teaches people about the Medicare system (when to enroll, how much you pay, what to expect when coverage begins, and so on).Find a Health Center
- An online tool that allows people to find federally funded health centers in their area (data can be exported to PDF or XLSX). This interactive map is also available as an iPhone application .FreeClinics.com
- A state-by-state guide to finding free clinics. Offers additional information for no-cost medical clinics, affordable clinics, low-income clinics, and clinics that offer services to those who are uninsured.Medical Cost Advocate
- A healthcare cost reductive service that helps patients renegotiate medical bills as well as check billing accuracy.Low-Cost Dental Care (NIH)
- The National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research provides advice on how to find low-cost dental care.Hill-Burton Free and Reduced Cost Health Care
- Information about Hill-Burton free care, which is available to people below current HHS poverty levels.PACER Center
- Specializing in treating children with disabilities, PACER Center provides this resource for parents trying to locate medical treatment and assistance.
amfAR - The Foundation for AIDS Research
https://www.amfar.orgRating for charitable donations
amfAR is dedicated to ending the global AIDS epidemic through innovative research. With the freedom and flexibility to respond quickly to emerging areas of scientific promise, amfAR plays a catalytic role in accelerating the pace of HIV/AIDS research and achieving real breakthroughs. amfAR-funded research has increased our understanding of HIV and has helped lay the groundwork for major advances in the study and treatment of HIV/AIDS.
Alzheimer's Association
https://www.alz.orgRating for charitable donations
Alzheimers disease is a physical disease that destroys brain cells and thus affects body functions and ultimately kills. It is not a normal part of aging. It is not limited to the elderly.
Click here to download a copy of the 2011 Report giving the latest facts and figures concerning what is known about this disease.
Click here to visit the Alzheimer's Association site designed to encourage action against Alzheimers.
American Diabetes Association
https://www.diabetes.org/Rating for charitable donations
The mission of the American Diabetes Association is to prevent and cure diabetes and to improve the lives of all people affected by diabetes. The American Diabetes Association is leading the fight to stop diabetes and its deadly consequences and fighting for those affected by diabetes. The Association funds research to prevent, cure and manage diabetes; delivers services to hundreds of communities; provides objective and credible information; and gives voice to those denied their rights because of diabetes.
Children's National Hospital Foundation
https://www.dcchildrensfoundation.com/site/PageServerThe Children's Hospital Foundation serves as the fundraising arm for Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C. The foundation partners with individual donors, corporations, and community organizations to help the doctors, nurses, and clinicians at Children's National fulfill their vision to transform children's health in the Washington area, across the country, and around the world..
Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation
https://www.christopherreeve.orgRating for charitable donations
The Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation is dedicated to curing spinal cord injury by funding innovative research, and improving the quality of life for people living with paralysis through grants, information and advocacy.
First Step
https://1ststep.orgFirstStep was created to help the millions of children in the world who are suffering with clubfoot.
Doctors Without Borders
Mèdecins Sans Frontiëres
https://www.doctorswithoutborders.orgRating for charitable donations
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is an international medical humanitarian organization that provides aid in nearly 60 countries to people whose survival is threatened by violence, neglect, or catastrophe, primarily due to armed conflict, epidemics, malnutrition, exclusion from health care, or natural disasters.
Glaucoma Research Foundation
https://www.glaucoma.orgRating for charitable donations
The Glaucoma Research Foundation is a national non-profit organization dedicated to finding a cure for glaucoma. Founded in 1978 in San Francisco, they fund glaucoma research world-wide.
Handicap International
https://www.handicap-international.us/Rating for charitable donations
Handicap International is an independent and impartial aid organization working in situations of poverty and exclusion, conflict and disaster. They work alongside people with disabilities and vulnerable populations, taking action and bearing witness in order to respond to their essential needs, improve their living conditions and promote respect for their dignity and fundamental rights. Together with local partners, they develop programs in health and rehabilitation and social and economic integration. They work with local authorities to clear landmines and other war debris and to prevent mine-related accidents through education. They respond to natural and civil disasters in order to limit serious and permanent injuries and to assist survivors' recovery and reintegration. They advocate for the universal recognition of the rights of the disabled through national planning and advocacy.
The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center
https://www.hopkinskimmelcancercenter.orgThe Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins has been dedicated to better understanding human cancers and finding more effective treatments. One of only 39 cancer centers in the country designated by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) as a Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Kimmel Cancer Center has active programs in clinical research, laboratory research, education, community outreach, and prevention and control. The Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center is the only such NCI Comprehensive Cancer Center in the state of Maryland.
Kennedy Krieger Institute
https://www.kennedykrieger.orgLocated in Baltimore, MD., Kennedy Krieger Institute is an internationally recognized institution dedicated to improving the lives of children and adolescents with pediatric developmental disabilities and disorders of the brain, spinal cord and musculoskeletal system, through patient care, special education, research, and professional training.
March of Dimes
https://www.marchofdimes.comRating for charitable donations
Their mission is to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth, and infant mortality. They carry out this mission through research, community services, education and advocacy to save babies' lives. March of Dimes researchers, volunteers, educators, outreach workers and advocates work together to give all babies a fighting chance against the threats to their health: prematurity, birth defects, low birthweight.
Multiple Sclerosis Association of America
https://www.msaa.comRating for charitable donations
The Multiple Sclerosis Association of America (MSAA) is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to enriching the quality of life for everyone affected by multiple sclerosis (MS). MSAA provides ongoing support and direct services to individuals with MS and the people close to them. MSAA also serves to promote greater understanding of the needs and challenges of those who face physical obstacles.
National Multiple Sclerosis Society
https://nationalmssociety.orgRating for charitable donations
MS stops people from moving. The National MS Society exists to make sure it doesn't. They help each person address the challenges of living with MS through a 50 state network of chapters. They fund MS research, provide services to people with MS, offer professional education and further advocacy efforts. The Society is dedicated to achieving a world free of MS.
Operation Smile
https://www.operationsmile.orgRating for charitable donations
Throughout the world, Operation Smile volunteers repair childhood facial deformities while building public and private partnerships that advocate for sustainable healthcare systems for children and families. They work worldwide to repair childhood facial deformities by delivering safe, effective surgical care directly to patients.
Parkinson's Disease Foundation
https://www.pdf.orgRating for charitable donations
The Parkinson's Disease Foundation (PDF) is a leading national presence in Parkinson's disease research, education and public advocacy. They are working for the people in the US living with Parkinson's by funding promising scientific research and supporting people with Parkinson's, their families and caregivers through educational programs and support services. Their stated purpose is to understand and find the cure to Parkinson's disease and related movement disorders; and, for as long as this search continues, to ensure that those individuals and families who live with Parkinson's are able to achieve and maintain the best possible quality of life.
Project HOPE
https://www.projecthope.orgRating for charitable donations
The mission of Project HOPE is to achieve sustainable advances in health care around the world by implementing health education programs and providing humanitarian assistance in areas of need. Project HOPE (Health Opportunities for People Everywhere) is dedicated to providing lasting solutions to health problems with the mission of helping people to help themselves. Identifiable to many by the SS HOPE, the world’s first peacetime hospital ship, Project HOPE now provides medical training and health education, as well as conducts humanitarian assistance programs in more than 35 countries.
Whitman-Walker Health
https://www.whitman-walker.orgRating for charitable donations
Whitman-Walker Health's mission is to be the highest quality, culturally competent community health center serving greater Washington D.C.’s diverse urban community, including individuals who face barriers to accessing care, and with a special expertise in LGBT and HIV care.
Copyright © 2024 Brian G. Mason