Confused about health insurance subsidies

[Cndn 98]

Hello, 

 

my spouse and I don’t like our current health care plan and want to enrol in a new one. We’re shopping right now. I know that the proposed rule change pertaining to health insurance was blocked and has not yet gone into effect. Also, my application for permanent residence was submitted many months before Oct 15th anyway, so I don’t think any of these new changes would apply to my case even if the rule did go through soon? 
 

I want to know if it would be a bad idea to get ACA subsidized health care? My green card interview will likely take place around June 2020 (my area is heavily backlogged).  Would this be counted as just a positive factor instead of a heavily weight positive factor? Or would it be neither and instead a negative factor because it is subsidized? Coming from Canada navigating the US health care system is confusing enough and then add all these proposed changes with immigration I’m just lost. 

[Joyoussinger 1,414]

34 minutes ago, Cndn said:

Hello, 

 

my spouse and I don’t like our current health care plan and want to enrol in a new one. We’re shopping right now. I know that the proposed rule change pertaining to health insurance was blocked and has not yet gone into effect. Also, my application for permanent residence was submitted many months before Oct 15th anyway, so I don’t think any of these new changes would apply to my case even if the rule did go through soon? 
 

I want to know if it would be a bad idea to get ACA subsidized health care? My green card interview will likely take place around June 2020 (my area is heavily backlogged).  Would this be counted as just a positive factor instead of a heavily weight positive factor? Or would it be neither and instead a negative factor because it is subsidized? Coming from Canada navigating the US health care system is confusing enough and then add all these proposed changes with immigration I’m just lost. 

According to the USCIS website, it is a positive but not a heavily weighted positive. It's all so confusing. 

[Cndn 98]

4 minutes ago, Joyoussinger said:

According to the USCIS website, it is a positive but not a heavily weighted positive. It's all so confusing. 

Yes that’s what I thought! Completely private is a heavily weighted so a subsidized plan would be just a positive. I don’t have any heavily weighted negative factors to overcome so I’m thinking it might be ok to use the subsidies because damn health care is expensive. It’s hard to be certain about any of this though. 

Edited November 21, 2019 by Cndn

[Joyoussinger 1,414]

57 minutes ago, Cndn said:

Yes that’s what I thought! Completely private is a heavily weighted so a subsidized plan would be just a positive. I don’t have any heavily weighted negative factors to overcome so I’m thinking it might be ok to use the subsidies because damn health care is expensive. It’s hard to be certain about any of this though. 

My husband and I have a subsidized plan, so we're counting on it being a positive. This is what it says in the article in the Federal Register: "Visas: Ineligiblilty Based on Public Charge Grounds".

"ALIEN HAS PRIVATE HEALTH INSURANCE  Additionally, consular officers will consider as a heavily weighted positive factor that an alien is covered by private health insurance (other than health insurance obtained with premium tax credits under the Affordable Care Act) that can be used in the United States during the entire period of the alien's anticipated stay in the United States. This approach is supported by DHS's analysis of Survey of Income and Program Participation data, which indicates that the fact that an alien has health insurance is indicative of the alien's ability to be self-sufficient. See Inadmissibility on Public Charge Grounds, 84 FR 41292, 41449 (Aug. 14, 2019). In excluding health insurance obtained with premium tax credits under the Affordable Care Act from the category of heavily weighted positive factors, though not from consideration as a positive factor, the Department observes that DHS adopted this approach in its final rule."

Here is the link to the article: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2019/10/11/2019-22399/visas-ineligibility-based-on-public-charge-grounds

 

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[Cndn 98]

1 hour ago, Joyoussinger said:

My husband and I have a subsidized plan, so we're counting on it being a positive. This is what it says in the article in the Federal Register: "Visas: Ineligiblilty Based on Public Charge Grounds".

"ALIEN HAS PRIVATE HEALTH INSURANCE  Additionally, consular officers will consider as a heavily weighted positive factor that an alien is covered by private health insurance (other than health insurance obtained with premium tax credits under the Affordable Care Act) that can be used in the United States during the entire period of the alien's anticipated stay in the United States. This approach is supported by DHS's analysis of Survey of Income and Program Participation data, which indicates that the fact that an alien has health insurance is indicative of the alien's ability to be self-sufficient. See Inadmissibility on Public Charge Grounds, 84 FR 41292, 41449 (Aug. 14, 2019). In excluding health insurance obtained with premium tax credits under the Affordable Care Act from the category of heavily weighted positive factors, though not from consideration as a positive factor, the Department observes that DHS adopted this approach in its final rule."

Here is the link to the article: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2019/10/11/2019-22399/visas-ineligibility-based-on-public-charge-grounds

 

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It seems completely fine to me to have ACA health care, so long as you don’t have heavily weighted negative factors to overcome. Besides, both of our applications have been submitted before the rule goes into effect. We’d likely be ok even with no health care. I’m going to get an ACA health care plan because I’m not going to throw away money that I don’t need to. I think we’ll both be just fine. 

[Joyoussinger 1,414]

36 minutes ago, Cndn said:

It seems completely fine to me to have ACA health care, so long as you don’t have heavily weighted negative factors to overcome. Besides, both of our applications have been submitted before the rule goes into effect. We’d likely be ok even with no health care. I’m going to get an ACA health care plan because I’m not going to throw away money that I don’t need to. I think we’ll both be just fine. 

I agree,  we'll both be fine. We're not ready to throw away money we're entitled to, so it's ACA for us! We have no heavily weighted negative factors that I can think of. This will all be over soon.

[Ontarkie 13,925]

~~Moved to Moving Here and Your New Life, from AOS Family -as the topic of health insurance comes up often in this forum.~~