Moonshadow_Girl

I know you said you don't have your GC yet, have you checked out the option of Medicaid in Georgia? I ask this because my niece, who has a full-time job, but no health insurance, was able to get Medi-Cal (California's version of Medicaid) for the duration of her pregnancy and at least 3 months after-if I remember correctly. Granted, she is a USC, but again, at least check out the option to see if you are eligible now that you're in status, or at least when you get your GC.

Good luck!

hobbes79

I watched a documentary about child brith in the US a while back.

One couple went to Canada for it. They paid, due to not being Canadian citizens, but said it was much cheaper than the US.

Just another option... plus I guess the child would be a triple citizen!?!?!

penguinsix

California's Medi-cal covers pregnant women who have green cards, but in most states you have to have a green card for five years before you can get coverage. NY allows some exceptions as do a few others, but most have the 5 year ban.

Have you considered a shotgun wedding for paperwork purposes? Would allow you to be added to your husband's policy and then move forward from there. You can have the church and the white dress and all that later, but for now you could go to Vegas for a bit and come back hitched.

georgiagal

Thanks MSG! Here in Ga it pertains to 'lawfully admitted alien', which I am. I have applied but have not heard back from them yet. Guess i'm just panicking because I don't feel like my ducks are in a row & i'm trying to explore all my options.

penguinsix

Really delve into this because the definitions are very odd. Lawfully admitted alien means you are obeying the laws, and the 1996 Welfare Act had a law that said no Medicaid for green card holders until > 5 years, so while it is available to those lawfully admitted, it is also only available to those who have been here 5 years or more. There might be some benefits available under SCHIP though. Of course both of these are means-tested so you might not qualify for financial reasons, and accepting this might cause problems with naturalization down the road (I think one of the questions is whether you have ever accepted public assistance for health care).

This is a bit dated but it discusses some of the general principles involved:

http://www.kff.org/medicaid/upload/C...nce-Report.pdf

Some more info here:

http://www.nilc.org/immspbs/health/index.htm

(I used to have a state-by-state chart of eligibility but now I can't find it an it is annoying me).

UPDATE: This is a pretty good review of the law
http://www.kff.org/medicaid/upload/7492.pdf

Ozzidoc

Another way of finding out where you might be able to get help from or the location of low-cost clinics is via the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

Start with the Georgia office:
Ms. Pat Cota at (770)904-5294 or [email protected]

penguinsix

These are some graphs that are a bit dated, but will give you an idea of what is out there. I'm posting them here since these are pretty common questions and hopefully they'll help others searching in the future as well.

fatbrit

Seems perfectly reasonable to me.

Bluegrass Lass

GG, are you looking at individual policies because your husband does not have a health insurance policy to add you to? Also, I thought it was a federal law that a pregancy could not be treated as a pre-existing condition. If you're saying fine print on an individual policy states the opposite, you need to contact the Georgia's insurance regulatory agency because I don't think they can do that. Getting the info straight from the insurance regulatory agency may help you to clarify whether or not an insurance agency can treat pregnancy as a PEC.

Congrats on the baby news!

nethead

You could have your baby at home with a midwife, much cheaper option. Don't know what the laws for homebirth are like in GA but you could find out with a quick search.

Giantaxe

Presumably you benefited from public services when you actually lived there... can't blame you for toying with the idea, but legally speaking you're only entitled to non-emergency NHS services if you are habitually resident there.

Jerseygirl

I agree...same applies to British expat children who want to attend uni in the UK...unfortunately the British government doesn't agree.

fatbrit

I try my best not to let governments get in the way of what I want to do. I have little interest whether governments agree with me or not.

Englishtart

That's all well and good, but you still have to fulfill those Gov't requirements (usually) before you can get what you want

Elvira

What I find disconcerting is people who refer to the "dreadful" NHS......... but would be quite happy to avail themselves of its services if they failed to obtain wonderful US healthcare...