tea_c

Hi guys

I've recently moved to New York with my wife. She's got a job on an E2 visa.

I need some health insurance. My wife gets a good deal on her plan, but they won't extent the discount to me - if I want in I'd have to pay the full premium of around $500 a month.

I've seen similar plans on the NY state market place for around $380.

My question is this: can I sort my own insurance plan out through the NY market place and then change on to an employer's insurance plan once I get a job (currently awaiting my EAD and job hunting).

I'm thinking that any job I get would offer a similar contribution towards my health plan, bringing my monthly costs down. I'm happy to pay the market place premium but want to be sure that is possible to leave in year and switch to another plan.

Cheers

Tom

SanDiegogirl

Yes you can take out your own insurance and then switch to an employer based one.

Pulaski

All health insurance is required to allow certain "life time events" to enable you to stop, start or change coverage.

Life time events include both you and your spouse changing jobs, death of a covered family member, divorce, marriage, birth/ adoption of a child, and there may be a few others.

tea_c

Great - thanks both.

mrken30

One thing to maybe watch out for is a lot of employers are now only offering HDHPs (High Deductible Health Plans) . These are the only plans that can use an HSA account. I am not sure how you deal with switching either way from an HDHP. The other thing that may slightly complicate things is if one person is on HDHP and the other person is not.