I am curious how others have handled the health insurance issue since we are responsible for our fiance financially, and until we are legally married, she is not on my employers health plan. How have some of you handled this? Is a temporary policy a good idea? Or just get married really quick?...thanks..Greg

My husband was without health insurance for the first 6 weeks that he was here, before we were married. It was a risk, but purchasing something for that short time was too much of a pain for us.

I had to wait till my husband and I were married as well. To have purchased something for 6 weeks (that's the length of time from his arrival until our wedding) would have been terribly expensive. After the wedding though, no problem. We took a copy of our marriage certificate, and his SSN and he was covered.

Marry her ASAP in a simple wedding at the Courthouse and add her onto your Employer's health plan. That is what I'll be doing. I think it is just too risky to be uninsured in America, especially when you have the means via an Employer's health plan. You can always do a bigger and better wedding later!

I bought a cheap coverage off the internet for her from the day she arrived for 3 months for about $200 or so. Once married I added her to my insurance. You can do a search for previous posts or look for tourist or non-immigrant health insurance. Good Luck

Is there not a wait after you get married?


I'd purchase a 3 mo plane ticket and add travel insurance until covered by group plan....

I checked with my employer before we married...they said all Joel needed was his SSN and our marriage certificate. No waiting period if you are adding a spouse or a newborn. At least that's with my employer though.

ahh that's cool then

Yup, same here, Karen. And coverage was even backdated to the "qualifying event", ie. our wedding date.

Are you sure your insurance requires you to be married? I know that's proabably the norm, but my employer allows partner benefits.

I was without medical insurance for the first 10 months I was in the US. Luckily the gamble paid off and I didn't have any medical issues during that time but it was always in the back of my mind that if something did go wrong I was screwed !!

I probably could have been added to my wifes insurance but until I was working, we really didn't have the extra money to pay the increased premium. I didn't have any insurance until I started work.

I am still trying to get my head around the whole insurance thing. Since August I have made several visits to my doctor for a persistent issue with my knee and having seen the costs of MRI's and various procedures BEFORE the insurance company pays for anything, I'm VERY glad that I didn't incur any medical costs before I had insurance.

Mark

I bought my fiance (at the time) a temporary insurance plan from MultiNational Underwriters. The website is www.mnui.com

My question is somewhat the same. I am married to someone coming over. I have been self employed and low income, and have county insurance. I know our spouses can not go on gov help, would this include county insurance which is just office visit reduced rates, lab reduced rates and rx with co pays....

Same for Gary and I.

Here is a site to look at. I just found on the internet. Maybe something to look at
http://www.travelinsure.com/who/visitors.htm