text: A couple who married in their teens and suffer from cystic fibrosis are in a race against time as the young wife waits for a life-saving lung transplant. Katie Prager, 24, was diagnosed with an infection in her lungs in September 2009 and is desperately in need of a transplant as doctors predicted she would not live a year without new lungs. As her health continues to decline, her husband Dalton, 23, who has already received new lungs, is pleading for help. Her insurance company, Kentucky Medicaid, will not pay for the out-of-state treatment she needs at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, he says. Dalton pleaded: 'They are turning my wife into a number, a statistic, a dollar sign. I cannot lose her. This can’t be the end of our love story. 'We are both ready to continue fighting but at this point we are running out of options and need your help. Please help me save my wife Katie.' Scroll down for video . Katie and Dalton Prager (above), who suffer from cystic fibrosis, followed their hearts and married as teens in 2011 . Katie, left, was diagnosed with an infection in her lungs called Burkholderia Cepacia, and is desperately in need of a transplant as doctors predicted she would not live a year without new lungs . Dalton has already received new lungs, but Katie is waiting as Kentucky Medicaid will not pay for the out-of-state-treatment she needs at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center . For the couple who put everything on the line when they first met in person in 2009, her husband can not imagine losing the love of his life who he married four years ago. In December 2014, Katie was discharged from the Pittsburgh hospital after a long stay and returned to Kentucky, but began having trouble breathing three days later. The hospital would not admit her because Medicare would not pay because she had used her lifetime maximum, the couple says. She will not be covered for the expensive out-of-state medical procedure again until she spends 60 consecutive days out of the hospital. She was admitted into University of Kentucky Hospital, but it however, does not do transplants on patients with the kind of infection that Katie has. 'Sixty days out of the hospital is not an option for her anymore. Medicaid is also not an option as it will not cover her transplant due to UPMC being 'out of network',' Dalton wrote on the couple's YouCaring page. 'After explaining to Medicaid and Pittsburgh that there are only two places in the country, who would operate, due to (the bacteria) Cepacia, (UPMC and Duke Medical Center) still refused to work together to help her. 'She is struggling to attempt to negotiate her healthcare options from her hospital bed at the University of Kentucky.' Dalton said: 'They are turning my wife into a number, a statistic, a dollar sign. I cannot lose her. This can’t be the end of our love story' Only three months away from their four-year anniversary, the couple has not been together since November 2014 when Dalton received new lungs, and hope they can be together to celebrate . Katie said that she feels like efforts to get transferred to Pittsburgh are at a standstill and that something needs to be done. 'It needs to happen soon. Nervous they aren't going to accept my case and that I'll have to restart this whole process at a completely different hospital,' she wrote on the couple's Facebook page. In February, Dr. Michael Anstead who is Katie's pulmonologist at the University of Kentucky, wrote a letter to Medicaid seeking for them to make an exception and pay for Katie's care in Pittsburgh, according to CNN. But Kentucky Medicaid denied the proposal saying UPMC declined to enroll as a Kentucky Medicaid provider. 'Medicaid policies allow for a simplified enrollment process for out-of-state providers in such situations,' Gwenda Bond, spokeswoman for the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services wrote in a statement to CNN. 'Should UPMC reverse its decision and choose to enroll as a Kentucky Medicaid provider, the Department for Medicaid Services...will be happy to expedite their application.' However, the hospital claims that Medicaid told them if they wanted to treat Katie, they would be required to sign up hundreds of doctors to accept Kentucky Medicaid patients. 'UPMC wants to help Katie, and our physicians and staff have done everything possible to make that happen...It is up to Kentucky Medicaid to address this situation,' wrote spokeswoman Wendy Zellner. So far, the couple relies on communication on phones and computers to keep in touch . UPMC said they are want to help Katie but said it is up to Kentucky Medicaid to address the situation . While Katie seems to be caught in limbo, the director of the media relations group at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said they are working to find a solution concerning her case by reaching out to the state agency. Only three months away from their four year anniversary in July, the couple have not been together since November 2014 when Dalton received his lung transplant at UPMC. Even though he also had Cepacia like Katie, which makes lung transplants more complicated, his has been a success. However, he has not been able to be near his wife in person until she receives a lung transplant because of the risk of infection. So far, they rely on communication through their phones or computers. But all they want is to be able to spend their anniversary together. 'I just want to make it to see our four year anniversary in July and be able to hold hands and just hug,' Katie told CNN. 'That's all I really want -- to be able to hug my husband on our fourth anniversary.' So far, the couple's YouCaring page has raised $43,425 in donations out of its goal of $50,000.
target: Katie and Dalton Prager, 24 and 23, met in 2009 and married two years later .
  They both suffer from cystic fibrosis, and in November 2014, Dalton received new lungs .
  Katie is still waiting for a lung transplant because insurance company will not pay for the out-of-state treatment she needs, husband says .
  Doctors predict she will not live a year without new lungs .
  'They are turning my wife into a number, a statistic, a dollar sign. I cannot lose her. This can’t be the end of our love story,' Dalton pleaded .