Medical insurance for person 74 years old
 

In August 13 my now husband entered the US on a B1/2 visa. We were married in October and he applied for a green card Dec 6. His visitors insurance expires in Feb. He does not have his I-131 to travel back to the UK to get his travel insurance extended and can not get coverage in the US, with Blue Cross, until he has a social security number.

Does anyone know where he can get insurance until he receives his green card? Hopefully, it would be for only a few months.

Re: Medical insurance for person 74 years old
 

I have moved your thread over to the General US forum as you are enquiring about healthcare insurance not visas. :)

Re: Medical insurance for person 74 years old
 

It sounds as if he has already taken up residence in the US, therefore his travel insurance has probably already expired and he risks any claim he might make being rejected. :unsure:

Re: Medical insurance for person 74 years old
 

Exactly. At 74 I think healthcare insurance will be mega expensive...and probably difficult to find. :unsure:

Re: Medical insurance for person 74 years old
 

Most likely, he will have to contract with a private insurance company to get coverage. Visitor/travel insurance is no longer appropriate as he is no longer a visitor/traveller. Be aware that coverage will likely be very expensive.

With respect, one wonders why he would come to the US to live rather than you going to the UK to live!

Ian

Re: Medical insurance for person 74 years old
 

He may not get insurance with any medical group as he is not a permanent resident in the US. He is still a visitor and the health insurance companies in the US don't cover visitors.

When he entered the US on the B1/2 did he intend to marry and stay?

Re: Medical insurance for person 74 years old
 

Thanks to the ACA insurance will be easy to find through the exchange though as it is all age based it may be pricey (he can't be refused though) and he will have to wait until he has his greencard.

Re: Medical insurance for person 74 years old
 

...... it is also income based. So depending on what the couple's income is he might or might not get subsidies, which are the only way to keep premiums down.

Re: Medical insurance for person 74 years old
 

Why can't he be added to your policy? There is no SSN requirement to be added to a spouses insurance plan as far as I know.

Re: Medical insurance for person 74 years old
 

There's no requirement for a SSN to get insurance, but some companies might have it as their own policy, or more likely the person on the phone doesn't realise they could use another identifier like a passport number.

Either way, the travel insurance is dead.

Re: Medical insurance for person 74 years old
 

First I find it very difficult to believe that he had Travel Insurance for 6 months, never came across such an option for the 70 ish age group.

If you could buy it, well arm and a leg.

As he has filed to adjust then from that moment he became eligible for O Care.

He should have signed up at last month, he can now go on the Exchange and sort himself out for the next enrollment period.

Presume OP has Medicare.

Re: Medical insurance for person 74 years old
 

Lots of thoughts in the above posts.

We know that insurance will be very expensive and have planned on that. He is working with a company to give him insurance, but each time they say it is a "done deal", some other excuse comes up from the "higher ups". This time, no ss#.

He did not come into this country planning on marrying me. After 2 1/2 months we decided we wanted to remain together year around. We have a friend who is a minister and he said "tell me when and where and I'll be there". We were married four days later.

Thanks again for the replies.

Re: Medical insurance for person 74 years old
 

Working with a Company? Why not just go on the Exchange?

He does not need a SSN.

Re: Medical insurance for person 74 years old
 

My husband was covered by my insurance as soon as we were married. He came over on a K1.

Re: Medical insurance for person 74 years old
 

....... the OP came over on a B1/B2 visa - a visitor visa.

Until such time as he gets his AOS because of his marriage he does not have the necessary requirements for insurance companies in the US to offer him a policy i.e a visa for permanent residency, SSN etc.

Re: Medical insurance for person 74 years old
 

That is not the case as I previously stated.

Re: Medical insurance for person 74 years old
 

You don't need a SSN to get health insurance. My husband was put on my policy before he had one and I have Blue Cross.

Re: Medical insurance for person 74 years old
 

Well obamacare may give people insurance to those who never previously had it and new migrants/elderly etc etc but having spoken to many doctors in the US they say these plans the people get are not financially viable for them to take so they simply wont accept them.

Its all very well to have the headline 'x people now have medical insurance' but if the docs etc wont accept them then what exactly is the use?!

Re: Medical insurance for person 74 years old
 

Some Doctors will, may not be the best ones at the best hospitals.

There was pressure to keep cots down and rather than look at the inherent waste they went the more practical route of limiting the network.

Re: Medical insurance for person 74 years old
 

In New York the plans are terrible and not cheap. If I took the cheapest plan for my husband and myself it would be over $700 a month and the co pay is a percentage of the doctor bill.We make too much to get any subsidies. They are all HMO's on the NY exchange and it's mainly Emblem which non of my doctors take. This is with a $5000 deductable.

Re: Medical insurance for person 74 years old
 

I am just curious as to how the doctor would know if its say something through the exchange or through an employer?

For where I would be living in California, all the usual companies are included on the exchanges, none are obscure companies.

Sharp and Kaiser for instance are both included and both operate several of the hospitals in the area, so your still gonna get good hospital care.

Like I said, just curious is all.

Re: Medical insurance for person 74 years old
 

As far as I know there is no difference in the contracted rates between an employer plan or a personal plan via the same insurance company. If they claim the reimbursement is too low it would mean its too low for any plan issued by the same insurance company. I call BS or misunderstanding on this one.

Re: Medical insurance for person 74 years old
 

Maybe your husband was in the country on the relevant visa which afforded him legal and permanent status - the OP, unless he gets his AOS before February, which is when his B1/B2 visa runs out, won't be.

There are posts on this forum from people who say that insurance companies won't give them a policy until they have been in the country for 6 months - I don't see how they would provide a policy to someone who does not have a visa for permanent resident yet.

Everytime I have applied for an individual policy I have been asked for my SSN.

Re: Medical insurance for person 74 years old
 

Some PPOs and HMOs in some states reduced the list of doctors and hospitals that were in network for ACA plans. It appears that most California plans were not allowed to do that.

The restructuring may have been done to reduce costs and increase profits or it could have possibly been a scheme to try to make ACA fail.

Re: Medical insurance for person 74 years old
 

AS I mentioned he just needs to have filed for Adjustment to qualify, which he has.

Insurers through the Exchange can not exclude based on your residency period, you either qualify or you do not.

They just use the SSN as a convenient tracking number, it is a Social Security Number, not a private insurance number.

Re: Medical insurance for person 74 years old
 

I was under the impression in Colorado that the ACA plans were separately negotiated and rated more akin to medicaid reimbursement.

A lot of the details seem to be hidden and will no doubt come out in time.

I am pretty certain that if you have different policies with the same insurer, one ACA and one not, there will be different returns to the Doctor for doing the same treatment.

Re: Medical insurance for person 74 years old
 

agree with boiler and disagree with duncan from the medics i have spoken to in the US the plans are very different according to whether aca or not even from the same company. this makes sense given the type of people you are now insuring i.e those with existing conditions, lots of unknown pathology compared to those getting regular checks and physicals etc

so naturally the aca plans will be less desirable with worse benefits higher deductibles but it looks good because those folks now have 'insurance' even though it is likely just a useless bit of paper. the docs wont take them on as the reimbursement will be less as the plans are crap as the insurers arent going to take a hit on these folk out of sympathy. the docs wont want these high risk low reimbursement people and because they are mostly independent they dont have to either etc

thats one thing noone really considered with aca the fact that the providers have no obligation to accept these plans that are likely to be substandard given the population they are now covering etc

Re: Medical insurance for person 74 years old
 

That's a good theory but over the last 10 years, more and more private plans were high deductible plans and when insurance companies had to pay, it was always a hassle sometimes telling the doctor that a procedure was covered and then later saying it wasn't. Then they canceled people or put them on a very high deductible with high co-pays and unlimited out of pocket expenses when they got sick and the treating physician was screwed more.

Re: Medical insurance for person 74 years old
 

See your point but the US docs seem pretty savvy. I very much doubt when you stop paying they would continue to see you gratis as they are a business not a charity. End of the day high co-pays and deductibles screw the patient not the doctor as they can choose to move on to people with better plans and reimbursements.

The US docs tell me a lot of the ACA plans are sub-medicaid reimbursement so naturally they aint gonna bother especially when a lot of patients with ACA will be high risk.

Re: Medical insurance for person 74 years old
 

So why are Doctors relatively savy when it comes to this, but not so seemingly when it comes to the big picture of getting the best for the overall populace?

They then seem to want to ignore the biggy completely.

Re: Medical insurance for person 74 years old
 

Remember that many doctors are vehemently opposed to the ACA, so I would not take everything they say as an unbiased picture of reality. Having said that, it's certainly true that in some states, at least, insurers have kept costs down by limiting the doctors on specific exchange plans.

As to the claim that ACA reimbursements are lower than Medicaid, count me sceptical. I'd like to see some evidence of this from an unbiased source.

Re: Medical insurance for person 74 years old
 

Not sure where you got the idea the US docs want to get the best for the overall populace since they have never done this in the past. Given a lot of things they do are revenue based such as operating on people for no reason, giving people coronary stents when they dont even have heart disease, over investigation etc I doubt they give a fig about the overall populace as long as their revenue streams are maintained. Getting the best for the populace would drop their income and defo. not be savvy in their eyes!

Re: Medical insurance for person 74 years old
 

We are in agreement, I had a friend in the UK, it has been a few years, a GP, he might have called it quits by now.

When Labour did there big switch up he did very well financially out of it, he was slightly embarrassed, when you are a small cog what do you do.

The local Doctor sold out last year to a mini group, I knew her husband quite well so we had chatted, I think we had sort of similar view as to the illogicality of what was going on, how much effort and resources the 'system' wasted.

I doubt if it can be changed fundamentally, or put it another way not without the revolution.

Re: Medical insurance for person 74 years old
 

Well if people could get away from the "well I've paid for the insurance, I might as well use it" attitude, and also the belief that there is a miracle cure for every perceived ailment, we could do a lot. Insurance is paying a lot for "lifestyle issues", and at the moment I can't see a way to get out of subsidizing other people's obesity treatments and viagra prescriptions. Give me an opportunity to sign up for insurance for diseases and conditions that are (i ) life threatening and (ii) beyond my control, and I'd jump at it. I suspect that between the doctors and the drug companies, such a commonsense CHOICE to sign up for such a plan will never be permitted. .... So, Boiler, I guess I do agree with you after all! :rolleyes:

Re: Medical insurance for person 74 years old
 

Even the NHS doesnt pay for Viagra am amazed if stringent US insurance subsidizes someone to get a boner. Also very difficult to get obesity treatment in the UK on the NHS. They make you go through so many impossible hoops you give up trying.

In the US should be simple case of maths - you cant pay a 3 figure monthly sum for insurance and expect to get 5-6 figure treatment on a regular basis. Thats why deductibles etc are there. The insurance companies have factored in the inherent problems with ACA into the plans they offer through them.

Re: Medical insurance for person 74 years old
 

Not really an ACA issue, more of a general issue.

Although if you expect a lot of treatment you can buy down the deductible etc with a more expensive plan.

Thinking about it what seems to be happening.

Young and healthy are not bothering.

Young and sick can get cover which is not too expensive.

Old and healthy can now get high deductible cover.

Old and sick can get get low deductible expensive cover. But may be better off reducing their income and going Medicaid.

Poor can get Medicaid. Poor in this case means income, out of work but still have good savings qualify.

I do not understand how it makes sense, whats new.