Hey all .. I was wondering if any of you bought travel insurance before you activated your visa .... I'm about to shop for some that will be good if you enter the US on a K1 .. Any experiences would be helpful ! Thx

Check out this thread...it should help:

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=36264

Good luck on your move to the US!!!

I hear ya, I'm looking into this too. I searched the site and found this helpful thread:
http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=29341

The Inbound USA insurance looks decent, but i have no idea of what I'm looking for because I have never had to worry about this other than regular travel insurance (which, by the way you CANNOT get since you are on a K1 visa ). The website is www.insurancequest.com

Check it out. Any others have any options?

Did anyone get another type of insurance? Or did most of you just go without

I've gone without since I got here 2 years ago. My insurance from my new job starts on November 1st. I'll be doing the tour of doctors once it starts. I need my teeth cleaned, and I need my annual workup, and probably a visit to the gyn.

Since I got here I just kept my fingers crossed that I wouldn't get sick or get hit by a bus. I've been pretty lucky. There's no busses around here

I got insurance through my work but have yet to use it :-) My Wife used it. She had a cold and they gave her 4 prescriptions. Not one of them was for a generic drug either. In Canada she probably would have gotten 1 prescription. I dont remember muscle relaxants and sleeping pills on the list of drugs that Canadian doctors prescribe for a cold.

WOW! I am surprised that you have managed for the past 2 years. When I was on my 4 month J1 visa a couple summers ago, I got health insurance - thinking I was just wasting my $$. LIttle did I know that when I met my fiance at that time he managed to give me strep throat 3 weeks before I planned to leave. I knew I needed some meds so it was a good thing I actually did get insurance! That is just usually my luck though - so I am not chancing it even for a couple months before I get on my fiance's insurance once we are married! Your lucky though!

Got my travelinsurance thru CAA, for me and the 2 liddies. It was about 500 $$ to cover us until December, up to 80000 for each person and it seemed like a good plan. So I did it. I am aplying for health insurance now for here in the states, it's going to be around 150 monthly for 4 people, sounds all good to me! Check CAA you can be covered thru the plan from Canada, they even called the head boss to check! Good luck.

I got travel insurance before i left from Travel Underwriters .. they also called to make sure we would be covered even though we moved to the USA with K1/K2 visa's and no plans to return to Canada .. They also called head office to make sure we would be covered .. the only glitch is it doesn't cover anything pre existing .. but nun of the American plans i found do either .. We got 30 days worth for about 150$C for 3 people to cover us until we are married and on my fiance's insurance ... and if we want an extension all we have to do is call them .. Good Luck to those of you hunting

Yes, by all means, check every insurance company (including RBC and TD Canada Trust) and get some kind of traveller's coverage. But be aware that travel insurance is only good if you also have valid health insurance in Canada. I guess you'll have that until you marry, move permanently, and give up your OHIP (or other provincial card).

I never bought travel insurance until I started writing for RBC and saw the real life horror stories. A lot can go wrong, even for healthy people.

When I moved to the States, I went almost a year without health insurance, knowing I was playing Russian Roulette. Now I have basic coverage at work. It's not free. I pay for it myself, but at group rates. Again, anything can go wrong and you don't want to be wiped out financially because of a freak accident or surprise illness.

Get health insurance as soon as you can.

my husband's doctor is a drug pusher too.

I can't believe the crap they feed people here.

Take some NyQuil fer crimeney!

My health insurance that I get thru work starting next month will cost me $214 per month. For just two of us. I think I used to pay $40 per month for my insurance thru work back when I had a job in Canada. And that included all the extras like life insurance and AD&D.

Muscle relaxants and sleeping pills aren't usually on the necessary list of prescribed medications (some OTC medications might include them as well) for a typical cold...unless, of course, you're being kept awake (due to excessive breathing difficulties, coughing, sneezing, runny nose, etc.) and you're suffering from myalgia (which can happen from colds, sore throats, a flu, or what have you...), in which case you'll be thankful to get a muscle relaxant. Most of the time, however, these muscle relaxants are used to combat pain in the lumbar region of the back.

Some of the prescribed muscle relaxants are actually benzodiazepines (minor tranquilizors), tricyclics (anti-depressants), and even SSRI's (anti-depressants). What makes this remarkable is that all of these are most commonly used by psychiatrists for treating a variety of conditions, such as depression, anxiety disorders and personality disorders. Why these actually affect us physiologically and help reduce pain is somewhat unknown. What is known is these medications can reduce musculoskeletal pain, and help fight migraine headache, neuropathic pain associated with diabetic neuropathy, and postherpetic neuralgia.

Anyway...enough of that. Your physician might've just been covering the basics, depending on what the list of symptoms might've been at the time. As long as you have insurance, you should be covered for the medication. I wouldn't expect each prescription to be any more than $40 at the most; usually it's anywhere from $10 to $20 per prescription, but then again, I have a PPO. An HMO might be a different story.

Yeah, but a bottle of NyQuil costs what? 3 bucks?

Oh, I agree. Cold viruses are usually better off treated with OTC medication, since there's really no "cure" for them anyway. Unless you're in a high risk group (very young, very old, diabetic, asthmatic, etc.), then there's really no reason why you can't just use Tylenol Cold, Robitussin, NyQuil or some other brand.