They have special medical assistance for cancer. We had someone close to us have cancer and not here legally and she got some kind of medicaid. Start with the hospital social worker. If you are Montgomery County, you have to find out what office she needs to go to. They have several offices and will send you away if you are at the wrong one. The hospital where she is getting care is your best option. She may not get disability if she has only been here 4 year/permanent resident. You'll have to call and check. Normally disability takes years, often people are denied a few times. Sometimes with a life threatening illness, it can be expedited.

OP here - thanks all for your input. For that last poster, would be great to have more information about this Rockville Pike office - any more details, please? Looks like disability is harder to get than I thought

FYI Medicaid is not an option because she has only been a permanent resident for 4 years (need to be for 5 years before qualifying for Medicaid, who knew? Not me!)

Appreciate any additional input people have.... Thanks!

Our nanny had the same problem with the MD Health Exchange. She really stayed on top of it, and still, 4 months later, she wasn't enrolled (despite the system saying she was). HOWEVER, it turned out that because she had tried to enroll, she was eligible to be covered by state insurance. She had to go to an office on Rockville Pike to get signed up. I'm not sure if it's too late. Here is a website about Maryland's programs: https://mmcp.dhmh.maryland.gov/SitePages/Home.aspx

For cancer, depending on what the treatment is and prognosis, a hospital social worker can get it expedited but it will still take time.

It can be really hard to obtain disability. I wouldn't count on this as a quick or easy option.

Talk to the hospital social worker. Sometimes they can expedite it. Otherwise, it takes years.

http://www.ssa.gov/disabilityssi/

There are two kinds of disability - one she has paid into, one you don't have to pay into. There is a two year hold back for health insurance. She may be eligible through medicaid so talk to your local social services (again, hospital social worker should help).

Our nanny sadly has cancer and will probably need chemo in the coming weeks/months. If that weren't enough, she's uninsured (despite signing up through the health exchange in MD in March, it never went through). We have been paying her above board, including social security etc (we pay her taxes). We were thinking perhaps financially it would be best for her to go out on disability, esp since we've been paying the SS so I would think she qualifies for it? She is legal, FWIW. Can anyone point me in the right direction of what forms we/she need to fill so we can do that ASAP? A quick google search confused me even more.

Any ideas on who I could speak with for pointers on this best way forward?