Help Me Move to LA and Afford My Prescriptions

Hi there!

Thank you for checking out my GoFundMe page. For anyone who doesn't know me, my name is Amanda Morrell, and I'm looking for financial help to:

- Afford out-of-pocket costs for my medications ($2,000 + per month) while I wait for CA health insurance to approve and activate my membership.

I know times are hard for everyone right now, and I'd be grateful for any amount you can spare, if only a dollar. Making this happen would mean the world to me. I feel like this is my one big shot at finally attaining something resembling a career. You know, that thing they told us millennials we'd have someday. And it would be a career I actually like and directly relates to my degree, which is a privilege. I didn't think this was possible up until a year ago, not for me. I can't even begin to explain how much I want this and want it to work out. I'm 33. I can't work low-paying, physically draining, and emotionally exhausting jobs anymore. This world I've stumbled into, music licensing, has honestly been a godsend. But I need a ticket back to the game. I literally need to be where the action is, and the window of opportunity is closing as the months go by. I move in a month—November 19th; I'll be in LA by December 1st. It's a Hail Mary. Please help me see this dream come true..

What do I need help with? 

To put it plainly, I won't succeed in LA if I can't afford my medications. If I can't move to LA or can’t stay long enough to find work, I'll have to move home and live with my parents in Missouri. I think you can guess why I don't want to live in Missouri. My landlord has my notice and someone has signed a lease for December 2022. There's no turning back now.

Why am I moving?

It's a long and crazy story, but in short, I'm moving to LA in hopes of finding a job in the music licensing field, specifically music synchronization licensing for TV and Film. I had a remote job in this field for a short while, assisting a music supervisor out in LA on several TV shows. But most of these jobs are contract, work-for-hire, no-benefits jobs. And when the work ran out, I was jobless again with no way to collect unemployment. I've been unemployed since April 2022.

Why LA?

As it turns out, finding another one of these jobs is pretty hard to do remotely from Western Mass. It's a small industry, it's all about in-person networking, and most jobs are in LA and require me to be in LA. Thankfully, my dear friend, Will, has offered me a place to stay while I network and job hunt out there. But of course, it's not that simple, especially when you have a chronic illness with no income. This is why I need your help.

What will the money be used for exactly? 

Any funds raised will go toward moving costs and priority needs like the 10 medications I take daily/monthly to maintain some kind of quality of life. American healthcare is a tricky (insidious) thing (especially when you're poor). After exhausting days of calling MassHealth, Medi-cal, social workers, LA health clinics, CA pharmacies, and finding a LA psychiatrist, I know that I will need to pay out-of-pocket prices for my medications and doctors appointments in LA for at least one month ($2,000 + a month) while I wait for CA's Medicaid to approve my application and activate my membership. Yes, they will back pay for medications once I'm a member and I submit a claim—but I do not know if they will cover ALL of the medications I'm currently on. Every state and every provider has different rules around what they'll pay for when it comes to prescriptions, especially some of the newer (expensive) drugs I'm currently on. There's no guarantee I'm getting even half of that money back.

Thank you a thousand times over.

Love,

Amanda