rumatumtum

Hi everyone

My family are going to the US in 2 weeks on L1a/L2 visa's. Basically the company are not offering medical which is fine because the salary reflects it and it was our choice to go but I was wondering if anyone knew if we needed to get a specific type of cover based on the fact we are 'non immigrants'?

We are all British and probably need cover for accidents, A & E etc as our NHS is still valid too I guess? Has anyone got any experience of sorting this type of health care themselves?

Thanks

lisa67

wow, why won't your company offer you medical insurance? very unusual imo

Elvira

The guy is nuts...... moving a family to the US without health insurance.

And they can't use the NHS since it is for UK residents only (unless a genuine emergency arises during future visits).

lisa67

I agree....I'd never contemplate a move over without Med. insurance and I wouldn't trust an employer who doesn't offer it.

OP..how many in your family? what ages? any pre existing medical conditions?
You're talking a LOT of money every month for even the most basic insurance and that won't cover dentistry or optomtetrists.

ian-mstm

You realize, I hope, that a single hospitalization in the US could very easily bankrupt you!

Ian

ri_mischief

Hate to tell you this - but as others have said above, your salary won't reflect the lack of medical coverage if something needing hospitalisation arise. A basic trip to the GP can cost you $75 - $100 just for the consultation - never mind x-rays, prescriptions etc etc.

There is a company that offers short term medical coverage http://www.assuranthealth.com/corp/ah/. They won't cover anything pre-existing such as asthma etc, and the co-pays and premiums are pretty high. As others have said - no dental, no opticians etc etc.

Also bear in mind that travel insurance will not cover you for stays over a certain number of days...if you were thinking of trying that route.

As you're L1 you must already be working for the company that you're transferring with - I would suggest you talk to them again. I suspect that they've either never transferred someone to the US before and therefore don't realise the implications of no medical insurance or they're trying to do a bit of a number.

Sorry to be blunt :-)

Jerseygirl

Travel insurance won't cover them anyway because once they are in the US with their visa in hand they are not tourists.


I second what the other posters have already said. You must be crazy to consider an intra company transfer without good healthcare insurance. There is no NHS coverage in the US or anything remotely similar...you are on your own when it comes to paying for healthcare and medications. As you will no longer be a UK resident you and your family will not be entitled to use the NHS when visiting the UK...unless it's for emergency treatment.

Rete

I agree with the others. Unless your company is giving you an additional $50,000 annually to purchase your own private healthcare policy, I wouldn't accept the offer of transfer. One accident and you are wiped out financially. The US does not take NSH so that is no good to you and if you have an accident you not going to be hopping a plane back to the UK for healthcare.

Bill_S

Good thing you didn't leave it until the last minute...

Your NHS cover won't help you in the US. You'll have to pay cash for treatment, or buy insurance for yourselves. Either option is going to be very, very expensive. You don't say what state you are moving to... do a web search for the insurers in that state, contact a few and get some price quotes.

Pardon the bluntness, but moving your family from the UK to the US with no health insurance is an extremely poor idea.

rumatumtum

Thank you all for taking time to reply with your responses, I'll try to ignore the 'nuts' comments.

We have no intention of trying to use holiday/travel insurance and don't recal even mentioning that route so not sure why you would bring that into it.
We are not moving to the US without healthcare.

We are a well travelled family who have lived in 3 different countries in the last 15 years and we know as well as anyone does there is no NHS in the US, hence the initial question. We have researched, priced and almost organised healthcare but it was a last minute question because I had seen somewhere advertising non immigrant cover and I wanted to make sure I wasn't missing out on a more appropriate deal which someone here on a NI visa may have had.

Thank you for the weblink.
We have no pre-exsisting conditions and are in our 30's with 2 young children.
We will be in the US about a year

If there is anyone on the forum who has used short term NI healthcare I'd love to hear from you.

Rete

What is NI healthcare?

Sally Redux

So how come you think "our NHS is still valid too I guess? "

Swisstony

Guys, be nice. I think the OP was indicating they assume that, for any really significant medical treatment, they could travel back to the UK and have this under the NHS there....

lisa67

and as Jersey Girl has already pointed out, NHS won't cover him in the UK as he won't be resident there.
I don't think anyone isn't "being nice", but after having my kids in the ER quite recently and with good medical coverage the bill (20% co pay) was still a huge whack.
The OP must have a great offer from his company to pay for med. insurance himself (at least $1000 per month) and then if it's good still be able to pay the co pay as well as dental and optical.

scrubbedexpat099

Nobody has answered your question

1. You may not be immigrating but you will be resident
2. If your employer provides cover it is not taxable, if you buy it yourself it is.
3. I think the avaerage spend is about $18,000 per year. Paying it yourself you would gross it up.
4. Cover depends on which State you will be living in, lots of on line tools.
http://www.ehealthinsurance.com/ for example