meauxna

Folks, it could also be a misunderstanding.. why not wait til OP comes back with some more information?

julie2

My husband has told his future employer that the medical insurance on offer is inconsistent with an overseas assignment package.

He wouldn't be staff. His one year contract does include a number of allowances, although none of it has been confirmed in writing yet.

We are waiting to see what the company comes back with, regarding health insurance.

Yorkieabroad

If the worst comes to the worst, and this is not a recommendation for a route to take by choice, but if you are really set on coming here for a yearand the company wont cover you, you could do what we did.

When we came here my (USC) wife was 7 months pregnant, and we came on very short notice with no jobs to come to (loss of visa in Singapore, 1 month to get out, where do we go? "Home" to the US for her). We could not get anyone to cover us at all for medical until 30 days after the baby was born, and we couldn't risk coming here uncovered. We had BUPA international coverage in Singapore, and we extended that to cover us in the US. They would not cover the actual birth (that was about 12k I seem to remember!), but would cover any complications arising from it, and would cover the baby from the moment of birth. It was incredibly expensive but we took it for 3 months just for the peace of mind. I want to say it was 1500/month back in 2002, but you can get a very quick quote from their hotline to get current numbers - then you've just got to decide how badly you want to come and whether the numbers make sense.

Hopefully your husbands employer will come back with something sensible on the insurance, but if not, there are other options...at a cost!

Good luck!

Bomjeito

If he is NOT staff, then the offer is totally and absolutely consistent with overseas offers.

Contractor offers do not include insurance, although check the details, it may require proof of insurance (NHS does not count) for binding the contract.

My husband's company offered a choice - contractor or staff. After a bit of research (and I'm USC), we had no choice but to have him go staff so that we have the insurance benefit. But our decision was a personal one. (Age, family planning, lack of maternity riders on self-insurance plans, etc.)

Of course staff means a lower pay but more benefits.

You don't want to be uninsured in the USA. Just my opinion.

meauxna

Since individuals can't compete in the health-insurance purchasing arena (with company group plan members) it could very well come ahead to take the lower salary with better benefits, is that right?

Yorkieabroad

It may, but not necessarily. A few years ago my wife was offered contractor status (rather than employee) and we ran the figures, and even with making all the FICA/FUTA/TWC contributions ourselves, plus picking up the health insurance, we still came out ahead. At that time, we switched from the group plan with United Healthcare to exactly the same plan taken out privately, and it was several hundred dollars a month cheaper - basically it appeared that the company was being ripped off bigtime by UH (though I'm sure someone there could come up with some 'logical' explanation as to why it made sense....).
Its on my to do list to run the figures again, but in reverse - she's a contractor now, and our Humana plan has just taken a 50% hike, but I can't seem to get any better elsewhere, so I'm going to have a looksee if it may make sense for her to go back "in-company"...

Bomjeito

Sadly, things are getting expensive for private insurance here. 5 years ago when I was a contractor in USA, it was cheaper for me to 1099 the whole deal and cover my own insurance.

Now we are in Houston and my UKC husband is the worker of the family, and I could not find decent coverage worthy to go contractor with. We presently are with him as staff, and had a choice with Cigna for $100 a month (high deductables) or $500 a month (not so high.) I had quite a difficulty to find a policy privately with maternity rider in Texas. We crunched the numbers of a pay out of pocket pre to post natal situation, and it wasn't worth our risk if there were complications with me or baby.

If we were in our 20s and healthy, I'd probably go contractor with private insurance again, but then again, we weren't making that kind of $$ in our 20s. We are still looking for a way to go contractor again, even if it involves me joining the workforce again.

So for the OP, it may be okay to simply take it bare bones....but depends on their comfort level, lifestyle and health, I guess.

Giantaxe

Remember that there are other benefits of being in a group plan versus individual coverage, other than the immediate cost comparison. For example, with a group plan, they can't decline to reinsure you - other than the whole group coverage being cancelled - and they can't jack up your premium more than that of the group as a whole. Individual coverage affords to such protections, and this won't change until 2014 under health care reform, or never if the Republicans get their way.

Bomjeito

Giantaxe, but aren't health care premiums going up each year even to employers?

I (thankfully?) missed all the health care reform discussions here over the past year - I thought pre-existing conditions are no longer an allowable reason for a plan to reject someone...what reasons can an insurance company reject a private person's application?

I'm actually now again looking at UHC and BC/BS, as my husband's insurance benefits are pretty crappy in relation to the increase he'd have with a contractor situation and we pay for ourselves.

Giantaxe

Indeed, but in the case of a group plan, any increase is equalized across the group and they can't, for example, jack up your premium based on your individual health. With an individual plan, one significant illness and you are likely to be in deep ****. Plus employers - especially sizable ones - have far more leverage over insurance companies than an individual does.

A lot of the provisions of healthcare reform don't come into force until 2014. As for pre-existing conditions, they can no longer be used to reject coverage for children, but that's not the case for adults until that date.

Yorkieabroad

True - but its probably not going to be an issue for the OP cos I think I read somewhere they only expected to be here for a year. Certainly an issue with us....having seen a 50% increase in a year where we did nothing apart from regular check ups and having a wart removed from my sons knee, I hate to think what would happen if we had something serious occur....

I just got a letter today from Humana telling me how lucky I was to have been grandfathered in to my policy as I had it in effect on March 23rd and I mustn't do anything to lose that status, such as changing provider.... I didn't actually follow what advantages I was getting....assumed it was just a "please don't go" attempt, but I must go back and read it again to see if there is any substance in it!....

julie2

Sorry, I should have said he would be a contractor. It is all making more sense now. We are still waiting to have the deal confirmed in writing. We may be lucky to have something more than the basic emergency package, but my understanding from here is not to expect that if he is not staff.

We are both in our mid 30s with no health problems. My understanding now of medical insurance in USA is very similar to car insurance in UK. You will have an excess to pay if ever you need treatment.

We need to see what the future employer comes back with and then look at ways to increase our cover. We definitely plan to be fully covered. I'm not prepared to take any risks. It is just a matter of working out the costs and offsetting them against the deal. It may or may not be worth it as people have mentioned.

I definitely won't get any cover from the employer. We have so many different companies for car insurance in the UK. Is it the same for health cover in USA? Would I just phone around various companies to see what the best quote is or does anyone recommended a provider?

penguinsix

Health insurance plans are highly localized and extremely fragmented. Someone in one state will recommend one provider, and someone in another will tell you that same provider is actually a bunch of neo-Nazis hiding out with Hitler in Argentina. Or you can get a basic plan that blows from company A and then a gold plated plan that rocks from the same company. And then what is covered and not covered can vary by the state you are living.

My advice is to check out http://www.ehealthinsurance.com/ and plug in some numbers. Take a look also at the WIKI here for more information on various terms you'll come across. If you find some plans there feel free to ask us about certain terms (deductibles, copays, etc) and other things that might be hidden in the fine print.

As for the exact specifics of how much you'll pay in what state and with what carrier, I'm afraid none of our answers will really help you. It varies just so wildly as to make comparisons quite difficult.

Duncan Roberts

There are tens of thousands of insurance companies and plans, a lot of which are regional. It is very hard to get quotes when you have no social security number and don't really know what you need. Start by researching co-pays, co-insurance, deductible, non-covered services, pre-existing condition and out of pocket expenses. Then research the different types of plan like PPO, POS, HSA andHMO.

scrubbedexpat099

I wonder what visa he is using, can not think of one that would work.