Experiences with Medical Insurance

[germangel 0]

I did a health insurance search on the internet and several health insurance providers called me and one of them said I couldn't have insurance due to my status. He connected me to another guy from a health plan provider and he said the same thing.

[ChristinaM 0]

He just said that you have to be a permanent resident for 3 years to be eligible for insurance.

That's a load of BS. If that company doesn't want your business, find one that does.

For the people without a SSN, you may be able to get around the "requirement" by asking the SSA for a letter confirming that you're either ineligible (as I was prior to getting EAD) or that you have applied for an SSN. I had a letter like that which allowed me to do all kinds of things (like open a bank account etc.).

[mandolinv 0]

Be sure to talk to the insurance agent about what is a quallifying event. I assumed moving to this country would be a quallifying event for my husband. The lady in the HR department said that it was not. Changing employment was, so if he quit his job and got here with in the 30 days of that, he could be on my insurance. Otherwise, she couldn't find a qualifying event that worked for us (we were married a year before he came).

[Matt_Stevens 5]

I will run into insurance problems. I have been self employed for over a year now and have had NO INSURANCE in that time. It was simply too expensive. If I had it, I could not pay my mortgage.

So, in 8 to 14 months time I will have my fiance here and we will get married and I need to have insurance for her. So are there any plans out there that will cover emergency care and tests, but not the very basic piddly iddly stuff like checkups and prescriptions for colds?

Basically, the question is, are there any cheaper, affordable plans out there? $300 to $400 a month for one person is not affordable.

[mandolinv 0]

This is what I plan to do once my husband gets his SSN. It is what my sister had. To add him next time to my insurance will be about 400 a month. I just want to cover in case of big needs/in case of an emergency. There are plans speciffically for that. The costs is anywhere from 50-300 depending on what it covers, how much it covers and the deductable. My sister just searched on google or yahoo for medical insurance, went through some websites, and called some agents and talked to them. She even had to use hers for a fall she had and it worked fine. When I get home, I'll try and remember to look for the name of it and post it.

[chispas 0]

When my husband first arrived on the K1, I checked in to getting him medical insurance through a few brokers and also called Kaiser in our area. I was told that he had not been in the US long enough to get individual insurance coverage. I forgot what the length of time was they were asking, but each broker said the same thing. I tried that route as our job we pay for our whole package ourselves and it is deducted from our checks. (Some Union agreement somewhere.) When we married, I was able to add him to our Group plan with no problems just as long as I paid the extra per month for covering a spouse. That was my experience.

Cheers

[Artegal 1]

In my experience I was able to add my wife to my workplace medical/dental/life/vision/perscription drug insurance plans without any identification or SSN card requirement. In fact my wife was still overseas awaiting the Visa Approval (K-3/CR1) while she was covered. However I did have to provide a copy of my marriage license to my HR department.

[DouglasSheridan 1]

we had good luck too. We got married on the 4th of Feb and the next week hubby went back to work, got the forms and filled them in that same night during his break, for both me and my son. I already has an SSN as we applied straight after I got here (after the usual 14day wait period though) so he marked mine down. My kid however, cos he hasnt got workpermission and wont until he is at age cant have a SSN, but still his health cover went through. Now hubby pays $41 a week for all three of us, for general cover/ vision and dental care.

Good luck for all you guys who are still trying!

Sheridan x