Insurance

[orion44 0]

Hi all,

My employer will provide great health/medical/dental benefits once we submit a certificated marriage certificate. In the meantime what can we do for coverage? Blue Cross says she needs to be in the country 90 days, Kaiser requires a SSN, and the travel insurance company I contacted says they only work with F1 and J1 visas.

What to do besides being very,very careful.

Edited July 6, 2007 by orion44

[Converse34 1]

I think the only thing else you might be able to look into is COBRA or another private insurance. Premiums will be outrageous and she might have to for all kinds of blood work. Otherwise, i would just say sit tight until you are married. She won't be denied treatment if life threatening.

[Sapphire 0]

I think the only thing else you might be able to look into is COBRA or another private insurance. Premiums will be outrageous and she might have to for all kinds of blood work. Otherwise, i would just say sit tight until you are married. She won't be denied treatment if life threatening.

What about taking a traveling health insurance from her country for a limited period of time? That should be easier & cheaper... That's what I am thinking of taking from Allianz in my country, whom I have previous insurance from for different areas. I hope it works, haven't contacted them on the issue, but I don't see why it wouldn't work. She will be just like a normal traveler, and she will still be a citizen of her birth country etc.

try it like that... traveling insurance are affordable and, depending on the plan offered, they cover enough.

[Converse34 1]

I think the only thing else you might be able to look into is COBRA or another private insurance. Premiums will be outrageous and she might have to for all kinds of blood work. Otherwise, i would just say sit tight until you are married. She won't be denied treatment if life threatening.

What about taking a traveling health insurance from her country for a limited period of time? That should be easier & cheaper... That's what I am thinking of taking from Allianz in my country, whom I have previous insurance from for different areas. I hope it works, haven't contacted them on the issue, but I don't see why it wouldn't work. She will be just like a normal traveler, and she will still be a citizen of her birth country etc.

try it like that... traveling insurance are affordable and, depending on the plan offered, they cover enough.

I would be very careful going down this route. Traveling health insurance is generally for tourists. If the insurance company finds out the purpose of the trip is not tourism, they could deny everything after you think you are fully covered. Whatever you do, just be completely upfront about your circumstances, it will come back to bite you in the end.

[Sapphire 0]

I think the only thing else you might be able to look into is COBRA or another private insurance. Premiums will be outrageous and she might have to for all kinds of blood work. Otherwise, i would just say sit tight until you are married. She won't be denied treatment if life threatening.

What about taking a traveling health insurance from her country for a limited period of time? That should be easier & cheaper... That's what I am thinking of taking from Allianz in my country, whom I have previous insurance from for different areas. I hope it works, haven't contacted them on the issue, but I don't see why it wouldn't work. She will be just like a normal traveler, and she will still be a citizen of her birth country etc.

try it like that... traveling insurance are affordable and, depending on the plan offered, they cover enough.

I would be very careful going down this route. Traveling health insurance is generally for tourists. If the insurance company finds out the purpose of the trip is not tourism, they could deny everything after you think you are fully covered. Whatever you do, just be completely upfront about your circumstances, it will come back to bite you in the end.

K1 visa is not an immigrant visa... true that it is done with the intention to immigrate but nevertheless you will keep your citizenship AND residence until you adjust. And of course I will tell them from the beginning about the type of visa I have, I know better on how reasons for not paying a premimum are found . But on the other hand, sometimes one needs to ask and try to open the other party's eyes to another view (a completely legal one - remember that insurance is a product as any other so subject to negotiation within the limits of the law). It worths a try, maybe the product is called differently, but there should be one that can be used. I'll let you know as soon as I speak to my agent, you reminded me I have to do this also

Edited July 6, 2007 by Sapphire

[Converse34 1]

I think the only thing else you might be able to look into is COBRA or another private insurance. Premiums will be outrageous and she might have to for all kinds of blood work. Otherwise, i would just say sit tight until you are married. She won't be denied treatment if life threatening.

What about taking a traveling health insurance from her country for a limited period of time? That should be easier & cheaper... That's what I am thinking of taking from Allianz in my country, whom I have previous insurance from for different areas. I hope it works, haven't contacted them on the issue, but I don't see why it wouldn't work. She will be just like a normal traveler, and she will still be a citizen of her birth country etc.

try it like that... traveling insurance are affordable and, depending on the plan offered, they cover enough.

I would be very careful going down this route. Traveling health insurance is generally for tourists. If the insurance company finds out the purpose of the trip is not tourism, they could deny everything after you think you are fully covered. Whatever you do, just be completely upfront about your circumstances, it will come back to bite you in the end.

K1 visa is not an immigrant visa... true that it is done with the intention to immigrate but nevertheless you will keep your citizenship AND residence until you adjust. And of course I will tell them from the beginning about the type of visa I have, I know better on how reasons for not paying a premimum are found . But on the other hand, sometimes one needs to ask and try to open the other party's eyes to another view (a completely legal one - remember that insurance is a product as any other so subject to negotiation within the limits of the law). It worths a try, maybe the product is called differently, but there should be one that can be used. I'll let you know as soon as I speak to my agent, you reminded me I have to do this also

I agree it could absolutely work. There is just always so much fine print and insurance companies often err on the side of not paying your claim! Good luck and please let us know how it turns out!

[orion44 0]

Thanks for the replies. You've given me some other avenues to go down. I appreciate it.

[Lou Lou 1]

I think the only thing else you might be able to look into is COBRA or another private insurance. Premiums will be outrageous and she might have to for all kinds of blood work. Otherwise, i would just say sit tight until you are married. She won't be denied treatment if life threatening.

What about taking a traveling health insurance from her country for a limited period of time? That should be easier & cheaper... That's what I am thinking of taking from Allianz in my country, whom I have previous insurance from for different areas. I hope it works, haven't contacted them on the issue, but I don't see why it wouldn't work. She will be just like a normal traveler, and she will still be a citizen of her birth country etc.

try it like that... traveling insurance are affordable and, depending on the plan offered, they cover enough.

I would be very careful going down this route. Traveling health insurance is generally for tourists. If the insurance company finds out the purpose of the trip is not tourism, they could deny everything after you think you are fully covered. Whatever you do, just be completely upfront about your circumstances, it will come back to bite you in the end.

K1 visa is not an immigrant visa... true that it is done with the intention to immigrate but nevertheless you will keep your citizenship AND residence until you adjust. And of course I will tell them from the beginning about the type of visa I have, I know better on how reasons for not paying a premimum are found . But on the other hand, sometimes one needs to ask and try to open the other party's eyes to another view (a completely legal one - remember that insurance is a product as any other so subject to negotiation within the limits of the law). It worths a try, maybe the product is called differently, but there should be one that can be used. I'll let you know as soon as I speak to my agent, you reminded me I have to do this also

This is pretty difficult to read. No one should be considering taking out travel insurance to cover their health needs until other insurance kicks in. I can't imagine any travel insurance that would cover you as you won't be a tourist. If the worst happened, and you did get very sick, most travel insurance covers flying you back to your home country to get treatment where it's cheaper, and therefore effing up your visa completely. Sure, you can get insurance from all kinds of companies from your home country to cover you, but under no circumstances will it be travel insurance.

To the OP: there have been several threads on this very subject so I can only suggest a search and hopefully that will be fruitful.

[athena_ny 1]

When I was without insurance (as a USC) ... well, I just went without.

The private premiums and COBRA were just too expensive.

[Thai Rath 1]

Hi all,

My employer will provide great health/medical/dental benefits once we submit a certificated marriage certificate. In the meantime what can we do for coverage? Blue Cross says she needs to be in the country 90 days, Kaiser requires a SSN, and the travel insurance company I contacted says they only work with F1 and J1 visas.

What to do besides being very,very careful.

You've probably already talked to an insurance rep, but I'll ask it anywas: did you talk to your human resources department or someone from your employer's insurance company? When my husband came on a K-1, our HR rep thought that he wouldn't be covered until we were married, but when I called the insurance company, I found out that this was not true. It turned out that because Blue Cross here in MA covers unmarried domestic partners (both same sex and hetero couples), my husband (at that point, fiance) was covered the minute he walked off the plane.

Edited July 7, 2007 by smgx4000

[Lansbury 19]

Hi all,

My employer will provide great health/medical/dental benefits once we submit a certificated marriage certificate. In the meantime what can we do for coverage? Blue Cross says she needs to be in the country 90 days, Kaiser requires a SSN, and the travel insurance company I contacted says they only work with F1 and J1 visas.

What to do besides being very,very careful.

Blue Cross covered me from the day I got here, in fact I arranged it all online while still in the UK

[Emancipation 2]

I asked specifically about travellers insurance before I left Canada..

I said "does traveller's insurance assume that you are covered under provincial health care and will just cart you back to your country should anything happen in the US", to which my insurance agent said "yes that's exactly how it works"... they will pay for care in the US if something catostrophic should happen, but as soon as you are able, they will ship you back to the home country for care (and for your own country to pay for it). That was the answer I got.

So.. being K-1 and knowing I couldn't just "go back" home we went with an inbound immigrant policy from Seven Corners www.sevencorners.com/ppo

[Jamie76 0]

When I took some time off before going to college, I was dropped from my dad's health insurance. I was able to get my own temporary (9 months I believe it was) for pretty cheap. Just do a search online and you will probably find many options. Blue Cross - Blue Shield is a good one to look in to.

[kitkat1 5]

When I took some time off before going to college, I was dropped from my dad's health insurance. I was able to get my own temporary (9 months I believe it was) for pretty cheap. Just do a search online and you will probably find many options. Blue Cross - Blue Shield is a good one to look in to.

I agree. With a little searching you should be able to find a catostrophic coverage plan that covers you in the event of serious emergency/accident/illness. It's possible that there are restrictions for non-citizens or new immigrants but coverage is out there and it's not all super expensive. COBRA is for people coming off a company sponsored plan only -- you cannot buy into it as an individual so that's not an option. I would also search through the old threads here - many people have posted names of companies they have used for temporary coverage.