jukes

Hi,
I have read lots about health insurance for USA and confused!
We are 2 adults ( I am USC have never lived in US) and 2 children, also my mum who is 65 years old and is a US citizen who has not lived in the US for 40+ years.
We are moving permanently to US in December and will not have jobs, we are planning on being self employed.
Who can we get health insurance through? best rates? etc.
Thanks!

nun

If your mum has 10 years of medicare payments she will qualify for medicare.

What state will you be living in? That's important as each has different insurance rules.

jukes

We will be living in North Carolina. My mum won't have 10 years payment as she left the USA aged about 24.

Nutmegger

I'm self-employed and use an insurance broker who specializes in health, so that he can lay out all the options for me rather than having to research it myself. I would heartily recommend that you look for such a broker in your area. Note that, when taking out a personal HI policy, you will usually have to take a medical.

Mummy in the foothills

Without income your Mum is making a huge leap of faith, at 65 she won't be eligible for medicare due to not having worked here long enough and at her age insurance costs an arm and a leg if anyone will even look at her for coverage. Moving with no job or chance of cover for your Mum is taking a huge financial risk one good illness could ruin you. (I'm not kidding)

IPMI Specialist

There are various options open to you from looking at local Insurance brokers in the US to source appropriate Insurance or whilst investigating that you can also speak to brokers based in the UK who can source for you the most appropriate insurance to suit your requirements either including your mother or providing something a little more specialist to suit her needs.

One of the benefit of using a reputable broker is obtaining best advice and sourcing the best most cost efficient product to suit your needs. You shouldn't be charged for this advice!!

Hope this helps and good luck with the move!

Steve_

Basically one of the main reasons I live in Canada is because of this problem. Your mother can get Medicare, any US citizen aged over 65 is eligible, however if she hasn't contributed for at least ten years (i.e. paid US payroll taxes) then she has to pay premiums to get it, which are $450 a month, and a lesser amount if she contributed for at least 7.5 years.

There are plans for self-employed people but often you are better off paying out of pocket. The trick to it is that if you have insurance the doctor or whomever usually has to follow their schedule so you might end up paying less overall, i.e. the scheduled rate + the cost of insurance is less than paying the price the hospital/doctor charges.

It really depends on how healthy you are as to which makes the most sense. For example if you use a lot of drugs then I don't think there's anything really available for self-employed people that is going to help, the ones I looked at always worked out more expensive than just paying upfront for the medication (or getting it from Canada).

Also interstate competition is prohibited, so healthcare costs can vary considerably from State to State. Worth having a look at what is available in the State you are moving to on www.healthcare.gov

Self-employment in the US is imx a very tricky business because you have to pay both halves of FICA, which is not inexpensive.

Mummy in the foothills

$450 per month is only for Medicare part A there are more charges for the other parts Part B and part D. (B is doctor visits and tests etc and D is medications if I remember right, I could be wrong on those)

Mummy in the foothills

Another thought, is the other adult (presumable the spouse) a US citizen also, what about the children?

robin1234

And "medigap" insurance in addition to Medicare Pts. A, B & D, to give full coverage.

jukes

Myself and my mum are uk and USA citizens, my husband has applied for green card he is UK citizen and my children are UK citizens until enter US on immigrant visa turning in to USA citizens at that point.
I am only one on regular medication, an asthma inhaler.
My mum at 65 very healthy, hoped to get at least insurance for a major injury or illness, rarely visits GP.
All non smokers.
I will investigate all your suggestions, thank you. Can we get temporary travel type insurance to cover us until we get it all arranged over there? Guess we'd been flown back to UK if treatment needed!

Weeze

Just to give you an idea on pharmacy costs, my emergency inhaler was $80. Thankfully I only needed to pay 20%. Everything is expensive.

CAdreaming

Try Patriot America - I think (hope) i read your original post correctly
they insure for the first 2 years for a new immigrant ---I have it and im not working

md95065

Does their definition of "new immigrant" include "US citizens who haven't lived in the US for a very long time (or, possibly, ever)"?

Married2abrit

"Guess we'd been flown back to UK if treatment needed!"
Actually, you would no longer be considered a UK resident for NHS purposes. Please research some older threads on this. One of our frequent posters has listed a letter she received from NHS describing this. Best of luck to you all.