Since most medicaid reviews look only for married spouses, it is possible to transfer assets to a partner in order to qualify. However this needs to be accompanied by legal protections that do not make the assets subject to claims by medicaid - yet to ensure they're kept them for the benefit of their original owner. This can be very tricky. The real fallout can come in careers. One of the few advantages lesbians have over childbearing heterosexual women is the continuity they can bring to their careers.
Cancer hits suddenly - often causing loss of a job.
Uncertainty about remission can cancel out budding careers - especially with cancers occurring in the 40s. Cancer stories abound where employers fire employees with cancer, refuse to hire them, or will only bring them on in lower-level positions. There are protections from the Americans with Disabilities Act and under the Family and Medical Leave Act. However the awards are small, the delays are large, and litigation may result in unemployability and a great diversion of resources exactly at the time when they are needed to offset the financial damage caused by the illness. Many of those actions have been spelled out in columns here - and will continue to be dealt with in columns to come.