repatriation with terminal illness

I have a question about my mother's situation.  She's been in the UK for nearly 2 decades (retired now) and always anticipated that at some point she would return to the US.  She's not ready to repatriate yet, but she has had a recurrence of cancer, which is now deemed "incurable" (although with palliative care she may have many years yet).  She has not had US health insurance since she became eligible for NHS, and though she had private UK insurance for a while, she gave it up a few years back.  My questions:

She is under the impression that she will not be eligible for Medicare until she has been back in the US for 5 years.  Is that correct?  How does one establish US residency?

If she does have to wait 5 years before Medicare becomes available, are there any insurers who will sell her coverage that would cover palliative/hospice care in the meantime?  Are there any international insurers that specialize in these kinds of situations?   

Are there any other repatriation issues that I should be aware of, given her medical status?

These are grim questions--and I appreciate any insights anyone might have.

Thank you.

First of all I am really sorry about your mom's illness and her situation. Here's some information that will help you start on getting some help regards to healthcare in US:

This is Medicaid/Medicare site that explains who is eligible and how soon; Unlike Medicare, which is solely a federal program, Medicaid is a joint federal-state program. Each state operates its own Medicaid system, but this system must conform to federal guidelines in order for the state to receive matches and grants:

newcomer link: http://www.cms.hhs.gov/MedicaidGenInfo/ [nonactive]

There are insurance companies in the US for first time or private insurers, but beware that due to her age/illness they will charge an incredible amount of monthly payment.
newcomer link: http://www.jbionline.com/agents/phahealth/phi-enquiry.html [nonactive]

newcomer link: http://www.phahealth.us/ [nonactive]

Also please ensure that her Medical Oncologist, her Radiation Oncologist and her GP/MD are all in sync with her treatment plan step by step.

Hope this is helpful, best of luck to you mom & you

Thanks, bliss-UKY for your kind words and the links. 

The material on Medicaid/Medicare is fantastically confusing when it comes to expats--I had hoped to find someone online who has been in a similar situation to help cut to the chase! 

The bottom line seems to be that unless one is fantastically wealthy, contracting a terminal illness while expat from the U.S. basically condemns one to die abroad.  Should I mention this in the "things to think about" thread?

The one (rather faint) silver lining in all this--I'll now have reason to travel over the the UK more in the years ahead!

I've looked into a related issue a bit as I have a pre-existing condition and want to make sure I can be covered when I return to the States. I still keep up private insurance, but even if I cancelled it, being covered by the NHS counts as being insured, according to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act in the States. And according to HIPPA, an insurance company can't exclude you for a pre-existing condition if you have not gone for more than 60 days without coverage for that condition. If that applies to a terminal illness, I don't know, but that sure sounds like a pre-existing condition.

You can look into it here: http://www.hipaa.org/

I hope that helps in some way!