Immigration with Type 1 Diabetes
 

Hello I am seeking some advice. My husband is going through the spousal visa process right now. He is a British citizen with Type 1 Diabetes. Right now through my current health insurance plan, I won't be able to enroll him for another year. He won't have employment when he gets to the States, so my question is how can we get affordable supplies until he gets insurance?

What have others have done who have come to the States?

I have looked up things online, but there is so much conflicting information. I would like to hear from anyone who has been through this themselves and can offer some advice as to what they did. Thankyou , I really appreciate your help and input.

Kind Regards,
YG

Re: Immigration with Type 1 Diabetes
 

The honest answer? You don't. You pay through the nose every time he needs something.

Also, it's far from guaranteed that he will be able to get affordable health insurance for such a expensive pre-existing condition anyway.

I personally would really discourage anyone from leaving the cover of the NHS if they have such a long term life condition - you have to begin to think about your problems and what you are going to need long term far more in the US than in the UK.

That said, I'm sure someone on here has been through similar and will be along soon to provide a more positive answer!

Re: Immigration with Type 1 Diabetes
 

Check the prices at the following links to see if they have the needed supplies and the price. The prices should be about as good as you can get.

http://www.healthwarehouse.com/simva...tml?ref=goodrx

http://www.goodrx.com/simvastatin?gc...FUxxQgodqE8AQQ

Re: Immigration with Type 1 Diabetes
 

When is your open enrollment period, and when is he planning on coming over?

When DH and I were planning everything, a big consideration was health insurance. I'm lucky that I have excellent insurance, but it came with some limitations such as when you could add family members. We ultimately decided to go with the K-1 so that I could add him during the 30 day period for "change of life circumstances" rather than get married first, do an I-130, then wait for open enrollment. We got married on January 30th, I got our certified copy of our marriage license and turned in all necessary benefit paperwork on the 31st, and DH had health insurance (and dental, and life, etc.) effective February 1st.

This is not very helpful you, but this type of information, should be available for those who research the pros and cons of each type visa.

Re: Immigration with Type 1 Diabetes
 

I was under the impression that when you first marry or have a child that the spouse or child can immediately be placed on your health plan. If you wait for x number of days then you will have passed the eligibility time and have to wait for open enrollment.

This is how it worked for me and my company's plan when I first married in mid year.

How long have you been married?

Re: Immigration with Type 1 Diabetes
 

First question, why will it take you a year to enroll him? That doesn't sound correct. A spouse moving to the country should fall under the qualifying events that would allow you to add him right away and with NHS coverage now there would be no exclusions, assuming it's a group policy. To expand on that, one qualifying event covers losing health insurance. Since your husband will be losing his NHS coverage and that is classed as creditable coverage you should be able to use that as a qualifying event to allow you to add him to yours. There is also a clause for changing residence causing a change in coverage. So there should be no legal reason to stop you adding him.

Secondly, it is possible to manage type 1 on a somewhat limited budget depending on the types of insulin used. If he uses any of the more recent ones (Lantus, Levemir, Humalog, Apidra, Novolog) then you either need to fork out the money to keep using them (around $100 or so per vial, up to double that for cartridges) or switch to the older NPH and regular insulins which can be had for around $10 a vial at Wal-Mart without a prescription. Test strips are another huge cost. If he uses any of the brand name meters you are looking at around $100 (give or take a few dollars) per box of 100. Places like Wal-Mart, Target and a few others have sort of generic meters where test strips can be 30%-50% of the brand name prices but depending on the number of tests it can still add up. Again, no prescription required. Although it's probably unlikely he's using it, metformin can be picked up for next to nothing with a prescription. Things like Symlin as well as Byetta and similar drugs will be expensive. Again, those are not common for type 1's to take but there are still a number who do. Things like statins and blood pressure medications can be found pretty cheaply in generic versions with a prescription if he needs them. If he does take them though, it might be worth using this as a good time to discuss the benefits and need to take those with his current doctor.

Re: Immigration with Type 1 Diabetes
 

That is normally true that whenever an event occurs (marriage, birth, loss of health insurance for spouse, etc.), a spouse or child can be immediately added (must be done within 60 days of the event) to an employer provided health plan. However I suspect the HR department does not consider "immigration" an event so she may have to argue her case with HR based on the fact that her spouse lost his NHS health coverage which should be an event.

Brat1 lost her health insurance and was immediately enrolled in her husband's company provided health insurance plan.

Re: Immigration with Type 1 Diabetes
 

I agree. Assuming that the OP is a member of a group health insurance plan through her employer I would expect that "loss of health insurance" would be a qualifying event that would allow a family member to be enrolled outside of the normal open enrollment period. If that is the case then she needs to go back and explain the issue to the HR/benefits people in terms of "loss of health insurance" rather than "immigration".

Re: Immigration with Type 1 Diabetes
 

If for some reason the OP cannot get insurance via her employer, if the State they will live in has a high risk medical pool that maybe an answer until she can enroll her husband. My wife is diabetic and gets affordable cover via Oregon's high risk pool.

Re: Immigration with Type 1 Diabetes
 

Also it depends on when he will be immigrating. If it is after January 1, the "Affordable Care Act" should be implemented and if he can't get employer provided insurance, then he would be eligible to purchase health insurance through the exchanges. If he is young, the cost should be low.

http://www.coveredca.com/calculating_the_cost.html

Re: Immigration with Type 1 Diabetes
 

They should actually be used together. Immigration has caused the loss of health insurance so could be used by either saying that immigration caused the current health insurance to be lost or the that the current plan is no longer offered in the new location. Either way, there are at least two sections that could be used to trigger the life event clause that would open up enrollment.