Health insurance for the wealthy

[Alex+R 0]

I'm pretty sure it says right on the I-864 that you're not responsible for emergency medical care. Could be wrong, and I'm way too lazy to check.

[Flames9_RN 358]

http://www.uscis.gov/files/form/I-864.pdf

Dont see that on there!!

[Caladan 19]

I believe that emergency medical care is not excluded by the I-864. Now, if she's still your dependent, &c., the financial risk from an emergency is there, but I don't think the I-864 burdens the USC sponsor with emergency care (since it's not a means-tested benefit.)

I've always been under the impression and assumption that the I-864 burdens the sponsor with any public charge. Certainly the uninsured in Houston / Harris county end up at the city or county taxpayer funded hospitals. They are mandated by Federal law to provide emergency medical care. It is no small stretch of the imagination to assume that they can find out if someone is a sponsored immigrant. Emergency medical care is not free if there is a deep pocket with money to pay the bill. The question is whether they would sue for payment using the I-864.

I read about a naturalized US citizen in one of the northeastern states that was sued by her state for public funded medical care provided to her sponsored immigrant mother through the I-864. Sued by the state...not the Federal government. I do not know if that is just the policy of that one state or even if the other 49 states do it too. I don't know if fraud was involved or remember the circumstances cited in the story.

It gave me the impression that I wouldn't want to go there and that scenario is something to be avoided. I wish I knew more about the extent of liabilities that sponsors are actually liable for. I've always assumed it was for any taxpayer funded public charge.

As stated, "any taxpayer funded public charge" is not quite true, or rather, "public charge" means something fairly specific The wording is that the sponsor's income counts as the immigrant's income for the purposes of granting means-tested benefits. Meaning, e.g., if C. were to apply for food stamps, they'd count my income from the I-864, and thus deny his claim, because he would be over the poverty level. And this has been interpreted by the courts, too, as giving the state standing to sue to recover for certain means-tested benefits, and one case found that the immigrant had standing to sue the sponsor for support.

I don't have a cite for you handy, but I am reasonably certain that emergency medical care is excluded from this sort of calculus. That likely means very little practically, since if you're still claiming her as a dependent you'd be on the hook for the medical bill anyway with even having to look at the I-864, and the benefits of having health insurance to cover medical emergencies far exceed any immunity the I-864 may or may not provide.

"Emergency Medicaid", which I think is what covers emergency services to the indigent. Excluded, page 6 of the I-864.