nermil75

How does a new immigrant enter the US health care system? Ie get insurance basically. Every plan I read about says I have to show legal residency for six months before applying. I am here on a fiance visa and will be submitting my permanent residency application next week but that will take a few months to process, so I assume the clock won't start ticking on that six months until I have that approved?

If you are not a salaried employee with benefits and need to simply buy it, do you have to go without any form of health care coverage for what will be for me nearly 9 months? That seems mad. To complicate matters I have a pre-existing condition though that's another story.

For now I just have travel insurance. But that's really not sufficient for a 9 month period.

sir_eccles

What does your future spouse do for insurance?

Speedwell

When are you getting married? If your wife gets benefits through her work, she can add you to her policy under "family" rates as soon as you're married. If you cohabit, in some jurisdictions she can add you right away. Pre-existing conditions are handled differently by different insurance companies.

nermil75

self employed. The rates for a one person business aren't competitive. So he has his own policy which he took out as an individual. Works out cheaper.

This may change in the next few months with him moving to a salaried position which may come with health insurance. But for now, I cannot get insurance through his work.

sir_eccles

Ah well that makes sense.

Jerseygirl

Is you are living in the US the travel insurance is void...because it's only for travellers.

GeoffM

It's not sufficient at all because you're not travelling. Throw it away, you're just wasting money on it. Seven Corners Inbound Immigrant insurance has basic cover with low limits (ie you could easily exceed the limits and have to pay the remainder yourself) but isn't expensive. We survived on it for a couple of months after the planned insurance went tits up.

As for the six months residency, well, you're in the US so you're resident. Some people have different ideas of what residency means so check the health plan as to their definition.

Nutmegger

Has he checked out converting his one-person policy to a family policy upon his marriage? My OH and I are self-employed and we constitute our own little "group" for health insurance purposes.

SanDiegogirl

I was going to suggest this too. When hubby and I were looking for individual insurance, one broker suggested that if we were to create a company (hubby was thinking of consultancy), then with the two of us working in the company we could apply for a 'group' plan.

Would be worth looking into, especially if you have a pre-condition which would make getting an individual policy difficult.

Scouse Express

You absolutely do not want to be here without insurance. A three-night stay in Hosp (without surgery) for my Wife cost $12,000. We have insurance, thank goodness.

GeoffM

We looked into this as well. To qualify (for California; I think the OP is in Arizona) the wife had to work for 20+ hours per week and myself 30+ per week. My fear was that they would want to see evidence of this (payslips) and falsifying could have serious repercussions, whether dropping of coverage, legal, or tax. I couldn't see it working without a lot of fibbing.

However, that was my personal situation. If it works for the OP then great! My wife takes the NCLEX exam later this month, after which (assuming she passes ) she can finally get a job and we get group coverage at approximately $1100 less than the $1100 that we're paying now for individual coverage (similar copays though).

Nutmegger

Even though they term us a group, the policy I am talking about is purely for individuals, nothing to do with our work.

SanDiegogirl

I have absolutely no experience of the company on this following site, but it might be worth looking at as they specifically mention how most insurance companies won't cover residents of under 6 months.

http://www.immigrationhealth.com/

Bob

Get a job with cover is your best bet.

You do not want to go past 62 days without prior coverage, which the NHS is because pre-existing could be excluded then and on a private policy, it would be a waste of money.

Bob

Aye, I had to go to the hospital for a check up, the 20 mins with the scan cost $720 and the five minutes the doctor spent looking over the scan afterwards cost $100.

With insurance too, but still ping ponging the amount we have to pay because we've been charged the remaining rate after the insurances adjusted rate, which we know is wrong but we can't get anyone to admit what the actual numbers are.