SanDiegogirl

I've just taken a quick look at the LV Insurance website, and for travel insurance (which of course only covers emergency treatment) I did read that some of their policies covers up to 10 MILLION in emergency cover....... !!
Also the younger you are the less criteria regarding prior medical conditions.

So, could be OK in order to cover those major medical emergency treatments...?

Dusty Roads

Strewth, how many more times do I have to say I will be using a U.K. based insurance company, I’m not US based, I have no record/history/knowledge of US based policies. The quotes that I have received from U.K. insurance companies, will be completely aware of what the medical companies charge in the US, they will have had to pay out many times.
There seems to be a number of contributors on this expat site who seem intent on trying to dissuade, convince or undermine the idea we have. And as I’ve said many times it’s just an idea at this stage.

SanDiegogirl

delete

Dusty Roads

Thank you… I beginning to get the feeling that some of the contributors on this site thought I was making it up!

SanDiegogirl

Oh no.... we are all just paranoid about medical health cover costs in the US

Dusty Roads

Maybe I’ll look at Australia instead!
Apparently they have reciprocal arrangement with the NHS!

Glasgow Girl

Could we focus on presenting solutions to this OP (and others)? It is definitely important to point out challenges but way too often threads focus on what what cannot be done rather what can be done, fail to identify solutions or tangible help which almost always exists, and divert into arguments over matters irrelevant to the original issue. Sometimes we come across like a bunch of old women. Just my opinion.

tht

sure, but we can’t invent them.. if there was an easy solution Google would be serving the OP ads for it by now….

pre-Brexit there was a solution for this for Brits who wanted a warm winter… Spain…

Glasgow Girl

But, Google is offering a potential solution as identified in the thread below, found in a 10 second search.

https://www.americanvisitorinsurance...e/visitors.asp

tht

Sure so $2m coverage for 6 months with a $500 deductible for a 55 year old and spouse is $4.5k… with Lloyd’s as the underwriter, however look at the max for hospital room, surgery and ER…$100k each, that won’t go far… so your not really covered for the risk you are insuring, a big emergency, would you bet you house on that?

Is it impossible to do this as a Brit on a B2, no, but if all you want is sun, I would look at 1 of multiple Caribbean islands… from a cost perspective…

leuler

My parents had a B2 visa from when they retired until they passed. Visa was relatively easy to get, renew and use. They used to borrow our spare car and then drive to Florida.

They had British travel medical insurance (mostly from saga) until they were 70 - after that getting a policy was very difficult. Could never find suitable, cheap US coverage. Most of the older people we know on B2 visas self-insure, local clinics for small items, straight back on a plane if anything more major. Has worked for all of them, but very risky. We've known several people die whilst visiting - but expense of that is low as opposed to a long hospital stay.

Be careful not to overstay B2, we got the dates wrong one year and they overstayed by 1 day - immigration officials gave them a really hard time and they did not visit the US for a whole year after that as they were worried. Another time, my Dad who is very chatty mentioned that he would love to stay longer - wrong thing to say - they spent 2 hours being questioned and I was dragged in. He was let in to the US but only just.

Dusty Roads

Right… I seem to be going around in circles here, whether there is an issue with some commentators not grasping what I’m in need of knowing, or if there is a unwritten conspiracy of intent to put me off!

The travel insurance quote I obtained in a 2 minutes online quote with a large U.K. insurance company providing me with £10,000,000 of cover for emergency medical issues is not sufficient? Come on… is the US a medical gold mine for anyone involved in the field. If it is that appalling and such a rip off then to me it needs a root and branch restructuring. Medical and health shouldn’t be a massive profit based industry, but an affordable service for all society. …Whatever I’m not here to whine on about the right and wrong, I just need a balanced approach to staying for a few months in the US per year.
There are so many comments on here who seem obsessed that I have to have US based policies for healthcare. For the umpteenth time, i will not be a US citizen, I will not have a US social Security number. All of my health care base, will be back in the U.K. and my only requirements for healthcare should be for emergency issues only. I do not visit my GP for months at a time (thankfully) so the obsession with healthcare is not an issue for me.

Dusty Roads

Thanks Leuler, this info is definitely more useful, don’t worry we won’t get our dates wrong, we’ve been frequent travellers to Florida on the 3 month tourist visa. Sometimes coming over 3 times in a year and staying weeks at a time. So we’re very aware of exactly how long we are allowed to stay.

I think I need to ask the question, as there appears to be a lot of reticence from commentators on this site about even contemplating such a project. IS IT WORTH IT? Did your parents love Florida to stay for that length of time? Or was it just a hassle? Clearly they had an extra motive as you there daughter was living there, do you think they would have done it without your living in the states?

Dusty Roads

You’re missing the point THT… I’m not taking an American based insurance policy for health, I will be taking a U.K. based travel insurance policy… as I’ve said many times on this thread, all of my health care needs will be U.K. based and I will only need emergency coverage which having done some homework should be covered by travel insurance.

As for Brexit, well that’s still a topic of controversy here… many of the remoaners still can’t get over it..rightly or wrongly I voted Brexit, having a bunch of unelected faceless bureaucrats from Brussels telling us what to do, didn’t sit right with me, next we’ll dump that Criminal Charter the ECHR. But I digress. I don’t want Spain or southern Europe, for a start I don’t speak the language and Spain has got a very bad name for dodgy Real Estate dealings. I don’t want the Caribbean either.

christmasoompa

It's understandable though, for anybody that's lived in the US for a while to be suspicious of a policy for months on end for a relatively small amount of money. It just wouldn't be the norm there! I've no idea why anybody in the US on a B2 for less than 6 months would need to self-insure when there's plenty of options out there, but perhaps they're either not from the UK and it's not an option in their home country, or they just aren't aware of long term travel insurance. It is a different thing, using comparison sites you won't get any long stays covered under the normal travel insurance section, you do need to tick the 'backpackers insurance' box to find it. My grandparents spent just under 6 months in Florida each year, they had a home in Naples. My grandmother was a US citizen though, but my grandfather was on a B2.

I've just had a quick look for backpackers/long term insurance for somebody a decade older than me on Confused.com. Cheapest 5* Defacto insurance was £580 for 6 months. Medical cover $10M, excess £95. No limits per hospital stay, there is mention of the US in the policy wording though, it says it will cover 'reasonable and necessary medical and hospital expenses means costs that are incurred for approved, eligible medical services or supplies up to 150% of the published medical rates for the same or similar treatment as payable by US Medicare'. I have no idea if the 150% thing would be a problem though.