Urgent Cancer Care No Insurance

My mother went to the emergency room a few weeks ago for a number of symptoms and long story short she has a massive tumor in her colon, so big they couldn't get around it during colonoscopy and it's impacting her bowel movements. She's had several follow ups since then and already has an ER bill for over $25000. At the last one, the ER doctor referred her to an oncologist at Memorial Hermann but they refused to set an appointment because she in uninsured.

She contacted MD Anderson and went through the process with their financial department but they still haven't given her an appointment. They suggested she apply for the gold card and Obama care but she's confused because she thought Obamacare didnt open up for enrollment until November.

She's in a lot of pain and her stools are getting worse – she's passing less and theres more blood when she tries. The ER doctor said he's not allowed to remove it because it's cancerous but they could do an ostomy procedure, but that wouldn't fix her problem it would just let her pass waste another way. So she'd still have cancer but she'd also have a brand new surgical hole on her abdomen that needs to heal and has special care requirements.

I guess I'm just posting here because I'm frustrated and I want to know if anyone has any suggestions. She doesn't make much money but she is technically above the national poverty line (which I believe is currently around $15000/year). She doesn't have savings and I'm a student so I'm also not able to help her financially. I'm really scared that this is going to kill her, and not because it can't be cured but because she'll spend so long filling out forms that by the time doctors can actually do anything it's too late.

Any advice?

Also: posting on reddit is sort of a last resort so I apologize if I'm not up to date on etiquette. I also may be slow to reply because I'm in school.

First edit: she has started the gold card process, thank you to the first commenters