Another health insurance thread

[palomino 3]

My husband's i 130 petition for me and our children has been approved and he is currently applying for jobs in the US ( We are in Ireland) to satisfy the criteria for NVC part (I 864 etc.) I have a pre existing condition and from what I have researched, I should still be able to get insurance. Unfortunately i cant seem to get much more info than that. Can anyone explain the system or how it works. My husband is hoping to get a job with good benefits. I dont know if they will partly pay for me too or if they refuse because of my condition. If we have to pay for our own medical insurance is there any link I can go to to find out what kind of money we will have to pay out for a family of four? I understand its down to each employer, so its a very general question but I would like to have some understanding of it in case we have to pay thousands we don't have when we get there! Also would we have to wait a period of time before my husband could add me on a policy, maybe i would have to be resident for 6 months or more? Thanks for any info

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

The employer will give you the offer; they usually pay for part of the insurance and you pay for the rest. It will be disclosed when he gets the job offer. Usually it's "take it or leave it." You and the dependents will all be set up immediately, once he starts work. If you join him in the US after he starts work, then immigration generally qualifies as a life-changing event to get you added immediately. His Human Resources people at his job can help you with all that.

What kind of preexisting condition? One that requires medication? or more? Preexisting conditions shouldn't matter with the new healthcare regulations, but I understand you want assurance of that. You'd have to read the fine print in the insurance disclosure. You can also call and ask them, once you know what insurance it is and what the plan is.

For alternatives, from what I understand those mostly are not set up yet, but they will be set up through your state. So that would depend on where you guys are moving to.

Unfortunately there are a lot of factors and you won't know until you know. Good luck.

Edited August 29, 2013 by Harpa Timsah

[2018JourneyDone 77]

My husband's i 130 petition for me and our children has been approved and he is currently applying for jobs in the US ( We are in Ireland) to satisfy the criteria for NVC part (I 864 etc.) I have a pre existing condition and from what I have researched, I should still be able to get insurance. Unfortunately i cant seem to get much more info than that. Can anyone explain the system or how it works. My husband is hoping to get a job with good benefits. I dont know if they will partly pay for me too or if they refuse because of my condition. If we have to pay for our own medical insurance is there any link I can go to to find out what kind of money we will have to pay out for a family of four? I understand its down to each employer, so its a very general question but I would like to have some understanding of it in case we have to pay thousands we don't have when we get there! Also would we have to wait a period of time before my husband could add me on a policy, maybe i would have to be resident for 6 months or more? Thanks for any info

Lots of info to be answered but I'll do my best. I work in the healthcare industry billing said insurance companies and also am responsible for purchasing our health insurance plans for coverage of all our employees. It is a complicated system at best. There are literally thousands of plans to chose from and each come with a monthly cost that varies from a catastrophic plan (only covers expenses over $10,000, for example) at roughly $3-400/month for a family to the best of the best plan that can be in the thousands per month for just one person!!! Ugh!! Average cost for a traditional plan with a $2,500 deductible, 100% coverage of annual exams and a 20% copay for other services after deductible is met in my state of Michigan through Blue Cross Blue Shield runs over $800/month for a family of three or more (meaning, three or more persons on the plan including the employee).

As far as coverage provided by the employer, again, it varies greatly. Most will cover either a specified amount per month towards employee coverage only, others may cover that plus a portion of the family. This would be something to find out when he is focusing on a particular job and can sometimes be negotiated if they want him bad enough. We contribute towards coverage for employees only. If the employee wants to add spouse and/or family they can do so but at their own expense (which currently works out to be approximately$620/month)

Health insurance in the US is outrageous to be honest. There is no rhyme or reason to their pricing strategy either. One would assume that adding one person to the employee's plan would, at most, double the monthly cost. That is typically not the case and usually it is more than double to add only one person to the plan!! From there, it is roughly a $1-200 increase to add an entire family. Crazy.

I hope I have at least shed a little light on the situation. Please feel free to ask any other questions or if I was unclear on something. Again, I am not an expert but am very familiar with this industry working daily submitting insurance claims as well as shopping for coverage for our employees.

Thanks!

Corey

[palomino 3]

Hi Harpa, thank you so much this is great, valuable information! My condition is Crohns disease , i take medication for it everyday and thankfully havent had to have surgery...may never have to or may have to ( who knows!). We are moving to South Carolina, I think I am just worried that our medical insurance will be very high and we will struggle to cover the costs. Thank you so much. The pressure is really on now because I 130 was approved in March so we only have until March to submit I 864 , and time is running out to get employment etc sorted before then.

[belinda63 3,038]

It appears that South Carolina has declined to build its own health insurance exchange. As the law currently stands on 1 Jan 2014 everyone in the US will be required to have health insurance. There will be three plans: bronze, silver, gold. Each plan will have certain things it must cover. The big difference will be the co-pays and deductables. I direct you to http://www. healthcare.gov for more information.

The mandate for employers to provide coverage that meets the requirements has been delayed for one year until 1 Jan 2015. Obtaining health insurance through the employer is considered a benefit and when the insurance mandate is implemented the insurance offered must meet certain requirements with the employer paying a certain percentage of the cost for the EMPLOYEE, not the family.

The confusing part of all this is that if the employer provides coverage for the familythat meets the requirements you are not eligible for the credit against the premiums as you would be if you had to purchase insurance through the exchange. So for employer based coverage you could end up paying more for family coverage than if you obtained it independently.

The good news is insurance can no longer deny you for a pre-existing condition come 1 Jan.

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

Yeah, South Carolina is not going to be a health-insurance friendly state, at least for now. Just wait until a job offer comes through. Hopefully the benefits package is good. Other taxes will be lower so your whole budget and what goes where will probably look very different from Ireland. What line of work is your husband in?

[palomino 3]

Thank you everyone for your help so far,... I think Im more scared now!! Lol! He is in the IT field, he has been applying since March but it seems the employers only want someone who is local. The recruitment agencies are telling him that he needs to be over there to get work but he is in a good job here so it is a huge risk to leave and go over to no job! Catch 22 I guess. I am not sure how long he has to be in employment to fulfill the requirements of the I864, that part is not clear.

Well i guess nothing that is worthwhile is easy. Thanks again everyone for all the info,

[NikLR 13,227]

***moved to moving here and your new life in america with other like threads as topic isn't directly about immigration***

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

Why South Carolina? If you were willing to move elsewhere I bet he would have a better chance of getting picked up. He could always go for a month to do some super job-searching and be on hand for interviews and see what he gets.

[palomino 3]

Well now Im beginning to wonder lol! We were over in New Jersey and New York last year on holidays and went to South Carolina with friends for a visit. They go there a lot and said it is a great place to live.We actually loved it .. to be honest I wouldnt know where else to start looking. I ve been researching non stop the schools, climate etc there since we came back. I havent a clue where else we would look. New York / upstate , new jersey seemed to have very high taxes compared to South Carolina so we kinda ruled that out . We have discussed him going over for four weeks to check out jobs but it seems it can take months to get work even when living there, also not sure his boss would be keen on giving him the hols! He is on call 24/7/365 and never actually gets a full day off !

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

Those areas do have higher taxes but also higher wage and more social safety net. And more economy so more jobs. But it's a huge country, there is a lot of nice places to live. You might contact member LauraDP, she and her husband managed to find a job and get immigration all set up and last I saw they were moving to the US soon, with 4 kids too.

Where is your husband from? When did he leave the US? Is he a programmer or more like a tech support person?

[palomino 3]

Thanks I will contact her. it's reassuring to hear they did it with four kids! My Husband lived in New York when he was there. He was not brought up in the US though. His parents moved back to Ireland when he was young and when he left school he went to NYC. He is not a programmer, I guess more like a tech, network administrator type!

[Boiler 45,535]

SC is not an obvious place for IT Jobs.

IT Companies do usually provide good benefits but I am not clear if it is an IT company he is looking at.

More companies are moving away from providing cover for Spouses or charging them a non subsidised rate.

[bigdog 376]

When he gets the job he adds you as wife immediately on his health insurance, restrictions depend on his company and policy benefits.

[Hannah and Liam 1]

Hello, hello!

Just to put another option out there: states like Massachusetts require you to have health insurance (you get a fine if you don't). It is a small one, however in this state there are a TON of resources to getting coverage : http://www.mass.gov/eohhs/gov/departments/masshealth/ a lot of companies are partially sponsored to provide affordable health coverage to their employees.

Not my field but there seem to be a lot of IT jobs here, from what I can tell. Also, keep in mind that each state has different policies regarding health insurance. There was a point in our history where we had different currencies in each state! Luckily, that's far behind us, but we are in the awkward phase with universal health care.

If there isn't a pressing reason to be in SC, take a look around and see which state might be a better fit for your needs.