Question regarding health insurance upon arrival

[abbeymg 0]

Hello,

 

I am in the process of moving my husband to the US. I have a question about health insurance upon his arrival. He will be searching for a job in his field (Software Engineering) and will hopefully get insurance benefits through that while I finish my graduate studies. I am in my mid-20s and on the last year of my parent's health insurance I am eligible for before I age out, which luckily overlaps with the last year of my studies before I can get a job.

 

My question is, my husband has German health insurance but will not be eligible to get on my parent's plan when he moves here and I will not have my own plan until next year. What is the best course of action of getting him covered while he is finding a job and settling in? I don't want him to go uninsured. He is healthy, but obviously we can't guarantee anything won't happen to him in the first month or two of his arrival. 

 

I looked into this plan for him, does anyone have any experience with this company?

 

Thank you!

[ChristianZane 70]

Whatever you do STAY AWAY from those insurance companies you provided a link for, I won't mention them here by name because it will get crossed out, but those companies will deny everything and call it a "pre-existing condition", if you are under 70 years old however I think they have a waiver for that but will limit the pay out you must read the fine print, you may have a better bet going through an open exchange, but generally I've heard horror stories with those immigrant insurance travel companies who will do anything and everything to deny any claim.

[spi9959 1]

I have the same concern because of my wife's adult daughter, and her two children due to arrive in the U.S. in March. I want them to have health insurance upon entering the U.S. The Healthcare Exchange won't even verify her identify based upon the US visas that her and her children have until they enter the US (we've tried that), and then the enrollment period may be protracted. I don't think you can paint policies such as the one that your link points to with one broad brush stroke as in "stay away from them". The policies certainly differ, and I've found several that I think look very good even after reading the fine print. My intent is to purchase one upon their arrival for a three to four month period until the daughter and children can get a policy through the marketplace or the daughter finds work with health insurance coverage. In fact, I may just use the non-ACA policy to cover them until 2019, and pay the 2018 penalty; it could turn out to be cheaper than an ACA policy even taking the penalty into consideration.

[Nika314 1]

We had the same problem. I came here with a K1 Visa (fiance visa) so I could not get in my husband insurance until we were married ( about 1 months).  We decided to go with one of this  " immigrant insurance travel companies" but like spi9959 already mentioned you really have  to read the fine print.  A lot of this  insurances do not cover check ups, dental stuff  or  pre-existing conditions and there is often a limit  of what they are paying. So if your husband needs to take some medicine regularly he should bring enough for 3 months ( the maximum you are allowed to bring)  from Germany. 

I even stayed with this insurance a little bit longer than I intended to  because it was much cheaper than getting on my husbands plan ( his old company didn"t pay anything for spouses). But now he changed his  job and his new company ( a German one :-P)  is also paying the health insurance for me. 

[stellamahoo 179]

On 23.2.2018 at 11:27 PM, Nika314 said:

We had the same problem. I came here with a K1 Visa (fiance visa) so I could not get in my husband insurance until we were married ( about 1 months).  We decided to go with one of this  " immigrant insurance travel companies" but like spi9959 already mentioned you really have  to read the fine print.  A lot of this  insurances do not cover check ups, dental stuff  or  pre-existing conditions and there is often a limit  of what they are paying. So if your husband needs to take some medicine regularly he should bring enough for 3 months ( the maximum you are allowed to bring)  from Germany. 

I even stayed with this insurance a little bit longer than I intended to  because it was much cheaper than getting on my husbands plan ( his old company didn"t pay anything for spouses). But now he changed his  job and his new company ( a German one :-P)  is also paying the health insurance for me. 

What insurance company did you go with? I am trying to figure out what I will do.

[Nika314 1]

On 3/8/2018 at 3:10 AM, Stemar said:

What insurance company did you go with? I am trying to figure out what I will do.

I went with Patriot America Plus. We didn't have too much time to look for one. But from everything we found this seemed to be the best, based on their prescription of course. I didn't need to use it so I can't tell you how good it is if you really need it.