Health Insurance for parents above 65 years old

[dhirendra_sh]

Hi ,

For parents immigrating to USA on US Green Card in old age (above 65 years), what are the options for getting a Health Insurance coverage ?

Thanks

[reliableman]

From my experience: If you get well known company (Blue cross, Kaiser, etc), premium is very high, but know they will cover (in most cases). If you get unknown company (US or India based), premium is not so high, but not sure if they will cover when needed.

It is hard decision. Medical cost in US is big problem for old people (esp from India with no medicare).

[yeda]

I recommend you read the article at http://www.insubuy.com/guide/new-imm...ance-plans.jsp

It precisely describes many different options that people may think of for their older parents when they sponsor their greencard. .

[dhirendra_sh]

How is Canada from health insurance perspective ?
In Canada, once non-working sponsored parents gets Permanent Resident card, are they eligible for government health insurance plan ?

[pmpforgc]

Hi

Does any one has idea about good private insurance for GC holders. I recently got GC. I might loose job and need coverage for my dependent (covering most of emergencies). I am looking for good reliable US based insurance with low permimum, high deductible but is comprehensive covering most of the high costs if needed.

I plan to use COBRA coverage for my self, as I regularly need medical treatment. But cobra coverage for family members ( who rarely needs treatments) is too costly.

thanks for help

[N400Atl]

Most of the known companies like BCBS, Aetna now a days offer individual insurance. Check their websites for their offer in your state. I get many flyers each week about those details.

[vishu38]

BCBS, Aetna etc. do NOT offer insurance to those who are 65+ years of age.

You can look at those types of products at Individual Medical Insurance
Try entering any age 65+. You will not find anything.

[mwalam]

Reading the link it seems that there are no options for parents if they plan to live here.. ????

[nscagony]

Well what do you expect? Health insurance for the elderly is expensive and often requires state subsidies. Why would states subsidize health care for foreigners who never worked and payed taxes here?

[vishu38]

There are some limited options available at New Immigrant Insurance

Various possible options that people may think of are described at New Immigrants Medical Insurance Plans

Over all, the truth remains is that elderly people who immigrate to USA don't have any option of being able to get extensive insurance coverage that will take care of all the medical treatments that they may need.

[ml_boston]

I'm the husband of ML, and have worked in health insurance for years.

Insurance is heavily regulated at the state level, so health insurance companies offer vastly different policies in each state. Any answers anyone gives you about rates or availability or coverage would differ drastically from state to state.

Because almost everyone in the US qualifies for Medicare at age 65, insurance companies don't bother spending their time selling 65+ policies. It's almost impossible to find non-medicare insurance for petitioned parents from well known insurance companies, unless you happen to live in a state that requires such policies to exist.

After 5 years, petitioned GC parents can qualify for medicare at the non-subsidized price (I think it's around $700 more per month than most people pay). Your parents would have needed 10 years of work in the US (paying the medicare tax) to qualify for the subsidized rate. Once qualified for medicare (even if non-subsidized), there is usually a large array of insurance options available from the government and private companies, and medicare.gov has a tool that lists all of them for a given zip code.

What many people do is just leave their parents uninsured. Emergency Medicaid pays for emergency room visits and subsequent hospitalizations for anyone without their own income (income of kids is ignored), and it is exempt from the affidavit of support contract.

States offer regular medicaid that pays for no-income individuals, but many states prohibit green card holders from signing up in the first 5 years, and technically the states could sue the GC sponsors for reimbursement for medical treatment (although no one I spoke to has heard of it happening). States routinely sue the patients (and their estates if they die) for Medicaid reimbursement from any of their assets.

For people who lost their job, individual insurance is exorbitantly expensive, because it is usually only purchased by sick people. For kids, some private insurers have reasonable rates, but its usually hard to beat COBRA. COBRA, which allows you to continue your prior employer's insurance for 18 months, is usually much cheaper than individual insurance, because all the healthy people in your prior employer still subsidize the rate.

-husband of ML

[N400Atl]

Many Many thanks husband of ml_boston for such a detailed reply. That is a great insight and very useful.

I still did not understand couple of things from your post. You said,

What many people do is just leave their parents uninsured. Emergency Medicaid pays for emergency room visits and subsequent hospitalizations for anyone without their own income (income of kids is ignored), and it is exempt from the affidavit of support contract.

Which I understand as, if your parents do not have insurance and get sick, people take them to emergency room. And treatment in emergency room is paid by State (Since the do not have income) That is exepmt from affidavit of support?? Won't hospital/state come after you for your parents charge?

You also said

States offer regular medicaid that pays for no-income individuals, but many states prohibit green card holders from signing up in the first 5 years, and technically the states could sue the GC sponsors for reimbursement for medical treatment (although no one I spoke to has heard of it happening). States routinely sue the patients (and their estates if they die) for Medicaid reimbursement from any of their assets.-husband of ML

Here you are talking about non emergency room treatment, right? So in this case, in most states, you can not get that if you are on GC for first 5 years. right? Even if you get it, then State can sue you or your parents for reimbursement. So it is kinda not available !!!

In either case, it looks like there is no free insurance for parents (Which makes sense since parents never paid taxes in the system so it is hard to ask others to pay for their free medical treatment)

Last few times when my parents were here visiting, we bought insurance from AIG. That is temporary travel insurance with pretty low limits though. I don't think that is available for long term residents like on GC.

Some days you wonder did you really make a right choice to stay here away from parents ?

[vishu38]

There is no free lunch, my friend.

Most of the hostpitals go after the people who take them to the ER and ask them to sign the papers so that they will have to pay if insured can't.

[ml_boston]

N400Atl,

In response to your questions:

Which I understand as, if your parents do not have insurance and get sick, people take them to emergency room. And treatment in emergency room is paid by State (Since the do not have income) That is exepmt from affidavit of support?? Won't hospital/state come after you for your parents charge?

Emergency Medicaid is exempted from the affidavit of support, so the states couldn't come after you, the sponsor. They could come after income or assets of your parents, if they had any.

Here you are talking about non emergency room treatment, right? So in this case, in most states, you can not get that if you are on GC for first 5 years. right? Even if you get it, then State can sue you or your parents for reimbursement. So it is kinda not available !!!

Yes, I was referring to non "Emergency Medicaid" treatment (google the term, there's a legal definition of it in the Federal Code). For non-emergency medicaid, the State could go after any sponsors. However, in 5 years, your parents could apply for citizenship, which terminates the affidavit of support. The State cannot come after sponsors for treatment provided after naturalization.

One more thing, as Vishu38 said, hospitals can go after anyone who signs that they will be financially responsible for the patient when they go to the ER. So make sure if your parents end up in the emergency room and they are uninsured, THAT YOU SIGN NOTHING IN THE HOSPITAL. MAKE YOUR PARENT SIGN EVERYTHING. If they can't sign due to their condition, leave all paperwork unsigned. The emergency room will still treat them.

- Husband of ML

[Vik Pal]

In New York State medicaid covers without any 5 years wait:

http://www.nyc.gov/html/hia/html/pub...ualified.shtml

http://www.health.state.ny.us/health...icaid/#qualify

*NOTE: Medicaid coverage is available, regardless of alien status, if you are pregnant or require treatment for an emergency medical condition. A doctor must certify that you are pregnant or had an emergency, and you must meet all other eligibility requirements.

Below is some more info for all states:

http://www.nilc.org/pubs/guideupdate...07_2008-03.pdf

[danis]

In NJ, you can buy individual insurance:
http://www.state.nj.us/dobi/ihcrates.htm

Eligibility
Under New Jersey law, you may not be denied health insurance coverage because of a medicalcondition, age, sex, occupation or where you live in this state. However, you must be a New Jersey resident.You or any dependents you wish to enroll must not be covered or eligible under:
Another individual health benefits plan
A group health benefits plan that provides the same or similar coverage(as that phrase has been interpreted through regulation)
Medicare.

[rick92]

This thread helps those who want to bring their parents after US Citizenship !!!