audio

Hello, a problem needing sensible suggestions/advice please.

• Lady in her70’s. A Brit national with a green card since last year (sponsored by her son a USC)


• As now a resident of the US, the lady pays income tax to the IRS on her UK State and small private pension.

• She declares the same amount to her former European residency country so her health care can continue when she returns from the US.

• She 6 months in and out of the US and realises that border control may query this at some stage or other. She buys European travel insurance for medical cover (max duration 6 months) during her stay in the US.

She wants to reside in the US but has a block; she cannot find any company to provide medical insurance cover at any price. It seems impossible from the likes of AETNA and AARP once you pass 67 years and are not a USC. My own insurance agent is not interested in helping them either.

I have seen past threads on this but can insurance be obtained in reality?

Must be a grey area at least but can paying income tax in both countries be avoided if ‘residency’ in both countries wants to be maintained?

Thank you in advance.

Bob

IRS is not something to mess around with. If you're trying to maintain a US residence, with the greencard, you need to sort out the taxes.

There's a UK/US tax treaty, so she shouldn't be paying tax twice.

On the medical insurance front, currently, probably nothing has changed since she must have done her research when first moving here.

Things might be different next year, if/when Obamacare kicks in and in between then, a lot will depend on which state she resides in. If that state doesn't have a high risk pool for the uninsured to buy into then as you're finding, she's probably uninsurable at that age.

Noorah101

Probably, at a price.

PAYING tax is not the same as FILING a tax return. As a US PR, her permanent resident is now the USA, no matter how much time she spends outside of it, and she must file a US tax return each year, reporting worldwide income. Whether she has to PAY tax on that, just depends on her own personal tax scenario.

Rene

audio

Thanks for your replies, to clarify:
She has filed a tax return with the IRS.
She is also files a tax return in Europe (not UK) of her other residency which also has a tax treaty with USA. She files purely to be eligible for health care there.

Jerseygirl

This seems to be a huge problem for people who want to retire to the US.

She has a GC and therefore she is a perm. resident of the US...it will probably void the travel insurance if she were to make a claim...as she is not a traveller or on holiday whilst she is in the US. Normally you must be a resident of the country in which you purchase travel insurance...obviously she is not.

BritishGuy36

You can't maintain residency in two countries simultaneously. One country has to be your place of residence.

Also you will find that travel insurance is not valid when really the person is not travelling, but resident.

This lady is going to come a cropper trying to get away with this scenario.

You cannot have your cake and eat it, I'm afraid.

penguinsix

You really are in a bad situation.

She will not be eligible for Medicare until 5 years after she obtained her Green Card. At such time she can 'buy into' the program for cash to make up for the years she wasn't paying the Medicare taxes. The only way around this that I know of is for her to marry a US citizen who is Medicare eligible and she can piggyback on his coverage.

As you have discovered, private insurance won't touch her. Even with premiums as high as $2,000 a month, mathematically the chances are she will cost more in treatment than she will pay in coverage, and it's just not worth it financially to support her. I think there was a study that says the "last year" of life in the USA costs in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. The math crunchers just won't allow the companies to take the risk.

Under Obamacare, there are "health exchanges" supposed to be set up that will offer lower cost insurance to people who have had difficulty getting insurance and others. This is to replace what is known as "high risk pools" that are currently in operation in some states. However, how much this will cost is still subject to debate, and you could likely see some very high premiums for someone this old.

There are a few "bridge insurance for immigrants" available for new immigrants, but given her age she's probably not likely for much coverage under that system.

audio

The lady asked me to thank you all for your replies.
It would seem that the only practical solution for her would be to bin the GC and revert back to a B1/2 she originally held and become a US visitor. How the USCIS would view this I don’t know but for sure more forms more $$$ and interviews.
Has anyone done this?

civilservant

This would not really work either, because in my opinion she would really struggle to overcome the presumption of immigrant intent required to be admitted as a visitor. After all, she's saying 6 months at a time, was previously a GC holder, and has family in the US.

audio

Yes good point, thanks for that. All these problems because of healthcare. I have just been reading your ‘Minor Healthcare Rant’, crazy IMO.

Jerseygirl

As she gets older travel insurance will become difficult to obtain and will get very expensive. Cost approx $1K for my then 84 year old MIL to visit the US for under 3 weeks.

audio

Hazard of family ties I guess but the only way of seeing her son and no he won’t, he is welded to NV. I should buy shares in the insurance business.