cephas

Hi all.

This summer I am planning to start work with a church on an R1 temporary religious worker's visa for 2 years.

I'll need to arrange my own health insurance, but am at a loss as to what exactly I need to buy.

How much should I expect to pay per month? Am I buying travel insurance or health insurance?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

ian-mstm

If you do a search of this forum, you'll find that in the past few days there have been 5 or so such threads on buying health insurance. I expect all of your answers are in there.


That'll depend on many things - whether or not you're married, how old you are, where you're living, if you have any prior health issues, and other such variables. There's other considerations also... whether or not your provider is considered "in network", how much of a co-pay you're expected to put out, whether or not prescriptions are covered, or dental, or vision. Considering that a single trip to a US hospital could easily bankrupt you, how much are you willing to pay? I'd budget $500/month if you're single, young, healthy, and have no prior medical issues. A change in any one of those would pretty much blow that figure out of the water!

Respectfully, purchasing health insurance should have been an employer negotiated benefit... not something you're expected to pay out on your own.


Once you're in the US, you're no longer travelling.

Ian

cephas

So the fact that I will hold a non-immigrant status doesn't affect the process for buying regular health insurance?

Thanks for your help, btw.

SanDiegogirl

Correct. However, you should have negotiated this with your employer.
Private health insurance can be notoriously expensive, plus they don't have to offer you any at all if you have, what they determine, are pre-conditions.

The majority of people who come to the US to work have employer based insurance.