Jerseygirl

Holly I suggest you post in the US forum...or at least take a look through the past threads. There are loads of threads from people like yourself wishing to move to the US without health insurance.

Personally I wouldn't move or live in the US without good healthcare insurance.

nun

At a minimum you should take out an insurance policy to cover catastrophic health costs for those 3 months.

holly2234

Thanks all, we've made our decision

nun

A few hundred dollars will buy you short term catastrophic coverage, being without any coverage for 3 months in the USA could cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars in the worst case. Just to do nothing is not an approach I agree with, but it's your decision, health and wallet.

vikingsail

I think you will find most govt, county, public organizations - University's etc all offer good cheap coverage in the US. Its one of the reasons people take the jobs for slightly lower pay than in the private sector.

To the Op - please consider some form of coverage in that short three months. Anything, could happen and even 'stitches' in an A & E will run you $$$thousands here in good old USA. I have a friend who's son ended his job/ insurance a month before going to Europe for a year. One week before his flight he broke his wrist jumping over a wall. $10, 000 later for x-rays, casts, examination etc. Fortunately, one of his parents policies still covered him - he was lucky. A high premium for 3 months would Iimho be money well spent.

nun

I think this is a very dangerous attitude. It's easy to fall into this when you've always had the NHS. But being without insurance in the USA is dangerous to your financial life. You will get treatment if you are in a car accident, but you will be expected to pay and that can run into thousands or even millions of dollars. You will be expected to pay off the bill, maybe over many years.

Jerseygirl

Kidney stones, appendicitis, broken bones, cuts to the skin requiring stitches etc will cost thousands of dollars. The list of things that could happen is endless...especially if you have kids. I prefer to stick with the mantra 'if it can happen...it will happen'. I cannot for the life of me understand anyone moving to the US without healthcare insurance.

The first couple of years we lived here my then 11 year old daughter went to the emergency room with an ingrowing toenail and had to have it lanced. Followed by a visit to the podiatrist who removed part of the nail and root. She also managed to break her ankle 3 times in 2 years!!

BritinFLUSA

holly2234, I hate to chime in again on this, but my first 3 months living in the US I didn't have insurance and avoided the Doctors like the plague even when I was sick. I did have to go to a walk in clinic once with bronchitis, which only ended up costing me a hundred dollars or so plus medication - which was another thirty or forty bucks.

However, as those here have identified, broken anything, an xray...heck even a trip to the emergency room without insurance can cost thousands just for a brief visit! I have some Brit friends here who aren't insured - they are self employed and can't get coverage - and the husband got Kidney stones recently, the bill for a few hours of times at the hospital and some tests was just under $25,000. He negotiated it to $5,000 to be paid over three years.

Definitely buy temporary insurance for your first three months or so and it will give piece of mind. If I did it again, I wouldn't have gone three months without coverage.

A fall, a bad flu, an accident in the kitchen could put you back years financially or at the worst, bankrupt you. Let's not even think about the car accident scenarios. These aren't just scare stories. These are real live events and scenarios.

Play it safe my friend and you will be fine. :-)

We all wish you the best of luck with the move though.

BritinFLUSA

Correct. I had some Brit friends that came to the US to get married on a trip this summer, their best man had to see a nurse a few times at a walk in clinic for some illness he had and they whined about how it cost them $80 a time. My response was - where did you take him..that's cheap! They were horrified. The "NHS mentality" you mention is bad because the Brit's don't appreciate what they have until they are away from it and then, until something bad happens they don't appreciate it!

Londonuck

Went back home and got an NHS dentist straight away, no bother. Back here now and its all a year before you get covered through work. WHen did that lil beauty come in? 116 a month now when it was about 60 before. Its gone very expensive in Vancouver. Already peed off!

Englishmum

The following link is one of the reasons why I'd hate to grow old in the USA.

I can't really make head or tails of the 'Medicare' plans....it must be daunting to be old (and we all know that the elderly can easily become confused) and having to deal with all the various insurance plans, liaising with bills from doctors and the piles of correspondence from insurance companies and excess charges etc...

http://forum.maplewoodonline.com/vc/...excess-charges

There was a link within that link:

http://www.medicare.gov/Publications/Pubs/pdf/02110.pdf

I know for a fact that my mother (aged 73) in England would need to have her adult children helping her with all the paperwork and correspondence regarding the above. Therefore, 2 for the NHS!

Fish n Chips 56

Not to be Rude but people coming from the UK have NO CLUE what our system is like here, I'm sure some compare it to car Insurance, hahahaaa, the attitude is if other Brits can do it then we can too, and I can see why they would think that way...

Our system is so complex, you need a degree to understand all the paperwork they send out every year, that paperwork covers their backside not yours, Money, Profit and Greed are involved and that's where the trouble starts, when you are sick and really need help the last thing you want to be doing is fighting with the Insurance company but it happens and the worry doesnt help...

Medical bankruptcy happens to a Million people every year in the good old USA but nobody seems to talk about it, that includes many people who have good Insurance with their job, its not just the low income people, Illness knows no job skills boundaries, the smartest people can get sick and they do, there is no catch system for the people who lose everything including their homes, nobody else seems to care as they live with the same system and just feel lucky they aren't sick, the odds are worse than a craps table in Vegas.

And what about those people that lose their job while trying to recover from a major illness, the medical coverage they have is lost, they are left paying the bills, but have no job, I saw it happen to member of this forum, I bet that doesnt happen in the UK...

A friend/neighbor of my mine just lost his house, him and his family had to leave, they got kicked out, he lost his job because of illness (MS) and it went down hill from there...

Medical Bankruptcy, Its the main reason I want out of here, why work all your life only to lose everything over night...

I've been through a lot over the last few years, watching my parents pass away was an education I would not wish on anyone...

I see Medicare got a mention, many people think its totally Free medical for the elderly, not exactly true, my parents had to pay for additional Medicare insurance just to cover some of the parts that the Medicare system didnt cover, when my mother got sick and was put in a care home to recover they decided after 21 days she would not totally recover, so the Insurance Dropped her, and that's all perfectly legal, so they paid in but legally didn't have to pay out... if my parents had lived in the UK they would have paid for almost nothing after 60, but here they paid for Insurance coverage, plus deductibles and then the prescriptions, yes OAP's don't get free prescriptions like they do in the UK...

All American Dr's are the best, RIGHT! some are Great and I would never say otherwise, but my parents were dumped numerous times in later life as some Doctors don't like to have too many Medicare patients on their books, they finished up with an Old Quack who was happy to have them, his care was Crap, he could have saved my Mother from numerous surgeries and possibly the care home, but he missed the Obvious, Multiple surgeries and an early misdiagnosis put my mother in that care home, we could have sued but that's the last thing on your mind when your Mum is sick, all your efforts go to making her life as decent as possible... the Doc is still here and I hear stories about him, but thats how it goes... we werent they only ones who suffered...

When you are old and feeble anesthetic can send you around the bend especially after three surgeries in a week, they say anesthtic stays in your system for up to a year...

Job loss and Cobra coverage, well it sounds OK but believe me I've done it, you lose your job then they offer you cobra, how can most people afford these rates with no income???...

What most people seem to forget is that all coverage has limits wether its $500.000, $1 Million or 2, once you reach that point they have every right to drop you and will...

I stayed in a job I hated for years just to have medical coverage, the 3-6 month lapse would have been a big risk to take, I think its why many people here go postal, stuck in jobs they hate, in the UK you are covered for life, you can change jobs with out worry of losing medical coverage, its just another thing we took for granted that weve lost living here...

Best of Luck to you all...

MrMuffin

Exactly. For that car accident... just the ambulance ride itself will set you back between $400 and $800 depending on which State you're in at the time.

dunroving

I'd say that's probably a gross underestimate.

MrMuffin

Probably is, but I can only talk about my own experiences... and my last ambulance ride in Sonoma, California (from Sear's Point Raceway to the hospital) was $575. Included being strapped to a back brace. Full Monty siren and lights and screaming through red lights the whole way. Quite fun actually, even though they weren't sure if I'd snapped my neck at the time. I hadn't. I was back at the racetrack later that day riding a motorized skateboard with my arm in a sling and three broken ribs strapped up. That was 1997, so prices have probably gone up accordingly