zed_stussy

Hi - Need advice.

Me, wife & 2 daughters (ages 30/33/5/0.7) are arriving on a H1B 2-year visa to Orlando next month. Whilst I will be covered by my employer for health insurance I need to find something to take care of any potential trips to the doctors for the wife and children.

I want something with a low deductible.

I was advised to talk to a guy called Scott that advertises on britishflorida.com - he gave me quotes for Llloyds of London which is only available to brits BEFORE they arrive in the US. They quoted me about $400 per month for wife&2children with a $250 deductible. I haven't read the terms as its kind of late so will read it tomorrow.

Any advice or feedback on LLoyds or anyone else would be much appreciated. I will continue to trawl these boards and read the posts about insurance.

Many thanks in advance
PB.

Jerseygirl

Have you posted on BE before?

Bink

Hmmm, Lloyds of London is a series of syndicates (well more accurately it's a market place), not an insurer persay so although he may be quoting you insurance which is acted through the Lloyds market, Lloyds is not the insurer. Nearly all insurance in the world ends up going through the Lloyds market in some form or another.

Michael

Your employer should provide dependent health insurance at a cost. You may think that the price is too high and can get it cheaper but individual health plans are a minefield where your dependents can be canceled at the drop of a hat where as employer provided health plans can't cancel dependents or employees.

See the following link as to what can happen with individual health plans.

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=740518

Bob

The job not offering cover for the family and you still took the job?

Individual policies are crap...if you want to read of some of the hassles, search out post by Brat on BE.

Loads of advice on insurance in recent past threads and the wiki.

SanDiegogirl

Is you employer not offering dependent's insurance? The majority of companies do this and the employee pays the premiums.

Group (employer based) insurance is usually much cheaper than individual policies,plus individual policies come with all sorts of restrictions, pre-exisiting conditions clauses etc etc.

If, indeed your company does not offer this then look at

ehealthinsurance.com to see what insurance companies and policies are in your area.

Sorry,cannot help with Lloyds policies

scrubbedexpat099

My guess is he is a sub agent, I doubt he is even a Lloyd's Broker.

As has been said the description is completely meaningless. the cover may or may not be.

They should be included with you.

Michael

I don't think Lloyd's is even an insurer in the US but just underwrites policies.

scrubbedexpat099

Well it gets complicated....

Let us just leave it at that. Not relevant to the discussion.

Bink

Lloyds is not an insurer. You would normally deal with a broker who deals with the underwriter. The underwriter is the insurer. Most major insurance goes through the London market, even from the States. You'd be amazed at how little the 'lead' underwriter actually retains of the vast majority of policies. It's all reinsured.

I agree with Boiler, I very much doubt he's a Lloyds broker otherwise he would have referred to it being placed through Lloyds but with x insurance company or syndicate.

Michael

I think we are just using different terminology. In the US, each state regulates insurance companies such as Blue Cross, AETNA, etc. and those companies must be approved by the state, follow the laws of that state, are held directly responsible for the policies that they write, are the companies that consumer deals with, and the companies that pays claims. There can also be brokers that sell policies from many different insurance companies and are unregulated.

States could care less about how a policy is covered either by the insurance company covering the policy directly, whether it is underwritten, whether it is held by a reinsurer, whether a derivative is created out of many insurance policies and sold on wall street, or any other mechanism that is dreamed up. Even though insurance companies use all kinds of gimmicks to cover policies, the state holds the insurance company directly responsible to pay the benefits claimed in the policy and some states insure insurance companies of certain types of insurance policies and will pay the benefits in case the insurance company files bankruptcy (similar to FDIC insurance for banks).

So I was just responding that that I don't think that Lloyd's is an insurance company and that even a broker for Lloyd's since policies written have to be written by an insurance company. So I was questioning what Lloyd's of London is in the US? Are Lloyd's of London just franchising their name in the US? Did Lloyd's of London become a broker in the US?

Bink

Lloyds in the US isn't really any different to the UK, they just have licensed brokers who still deal with the london underwriters through the syndicates at Lloyds. I wasn't trying to be pinickity, just clarifying that Lloyds in itself, is not an Insurance company. I think there's a general misconception that they're an Insurance company and you can just go and get a 'Lloyds' policy, thats not the case although you can get policies that are underwritten through the Lloyds market syndicates.

You're right in that the lead underwriter still holds the liability, and in the event of a claim acts on behalf of the following market (reinsurers).

I guess I'm a bit confused as to why an individual would be getting quotes through Lloyds. As you state, individuals normally deal with companies like BCBS or Aetna. It's normally only for corporate insurance etc that you'd look for the best deal by placing insurance through the London market to see the lowest premiums that you could get for the appropriate coverage.

My company, for example, has an insurance agent who gets quotes through the London market for indemnity coverage etc. I also deal with large (offshore O&G) claims from a technical perspective that go through the London market and are being checked for the validity of the claim.

Michael

That was the part that was confusing me. It sounds like Lloyd's of London is just acting as an independent insurance agent selling other companies insurance in the US if they are selling insurance.

Nutmegger

To me, this makes it sound as if it is a temporary ex-pat travel policy, not a policy for US residents.

zed_stussy

Thanks for the replies to my post so far, since i posted this i have sat down with my employer who offers insurance for me and my family. The cost is around $232 p/w. Dental is an extra $16 p/w

Im going to call this guy again and see what this policy from "lloyds" covers for $400 per month (for all 4 members of our family)

http://www.britishflorida.com/index....INSURANCE.html