ROCHESTER, N.Y. — October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and Thursday’s Consumer Alert tackles a difficult topic. While many address the challenges of breast cancer diagnosis, few talk about the fact it can be financially devastating.

This is especially true for folks facing metastatic breast cancer, which is cancer that has spread to other parts of the body. Currently, there is no cure. Often when a patient is no longer able to work, she also loses her health insurance, forcing families to pay for care out of pocket.

It currently takes almost two and a half years to get disability and Medicare, and advocates say for these stage-four patients, that’s too long. A bill in the U.S. House would waive that waiting period.

“I think what a lot of people don’t realize about metastatic breast cancer is that while there are treatments and more and more of them which is fantastic, there is no cure. And so I will be in treatment for the rest of my life,” said Jules Netherland, who has metastatic breast cancer.

“It’s been hard. I’ll be honest with you. I mean it really upended my life. I really thought I had beat cancer,” Netherland told News10NBC’s Deanna Dewberry.

While some metastatic patients are able to keep the cancer at bay for as long as a decade, according to the National Institutes of Health the median survival time is three years.

Right now, Netherland’s medication is keeping the cancer from spreading, allowing her to celebrate another birthday and her recent marriage. As a PhD in medical sociology, she’s able to continue fulfilling work leading a research team at the Drug Policy Alliance. But she knows eventually she’ll likely be forced to stop working and apply for disability.

“The problem is, and that is what the bill seeks to address, is that even if I qualify for disability, there’s a 24-month waiting period for me to qualify for Medicare. So that essentially means that there are two years that the government has determined that I’m completely totally permanently disabled I don’t have access to health insurance,” said Netherland.

The bill would waive that waiting period.

“What this bill would do is waive the waiting period and when you qualify for SSDI you would also qualify for Medicare at the same time,” Netherland explained.

The bill would not be unprecedented. Legislation has already passed that waived the two-and-a-half-year waiting period for people with terminal diseases like ALS.

“It would make a world of difference for people like me who would like to and frankly need to stop working but can’t afford to wait the five months to get disability benefits then the two years to pay out of pocket for health insurance,” said Netherland.

Right now, the bill is stuck in the House Ways and Means Committee. Every Democrat and Republican in the New York delegation has co-signed that legislation, except for Claudia Tenney who sits on the Ways and Means Committee.

News10NBC asked Tenney’s office why she hasn’t co-signed that legislation. She didn’t answer the question, instead sending a statement vowing to vote for the bill if it reaches the House floor. But advocates say the bill likely won’t make it out of committee without her co-signature.

News10NBC will continue to follow the progress of the bill and provide updates on what happens.

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