Medical care for parents (non-GC) of GC holder

[mcpost]

Hi all,

I'm looking into seeking a second medical opinion on my 65 year old father's condition (liver cirhorsis, cancerous nodules) in the U.S. and if possible, any medical treatment needed during his visit here (He will be visiting for about 5 to 6 months).

He will be on visitor's visa. I'm have GC and am wondering if there are medical benefits I can apply for him to cover part/all of the medical costs involved.

I also heard about insurance for foreign visitors, do they cover this kind of treatment? Any recommendations for a reliable one?

Thanks in advance!

~mcpost

[TheRealCanadian]

Originally Posted by mcpost

He will be on visitor's visa. I'm have GC and am wondering if there are medical benefits I can apply for him to cover part/all of the medical costs involved.

Thankfully my tax dollars are not used for this. If you wish to purchase insurance for him, or pay for care out of your own pocket - those are you choices.

[NJOY_SCUBA]

Originally Posted by TheRealCanadian

Thankfully my tax dollars are not used for this. If you wish to purchase insurance for him, or pay for care out of your own pocket - those are you choices.

don't worry, your tax dollars won't be used to help treat a sick person. They are being well utilized in Iraq and for corporate welfare and giving you the shaft when it comes to your health benefits.

purchasing health ins may not help incase of pre-existing conditions. read the the FAQs for companies offering visitor health insurance.

[arizonian]

Any insurance you purchase will not cover a "pre-existing condition", and will cover emergencies only.

Unless you have an oil well in your backyard, you will not be able to afford cash payments for medical care here.

[sunny914]

Sorry to hear about your father's condition.
But conditions like "cancerous nodules" are considered pre-existing and are not covered by Private Insurance companies even in India and will not be covered here in USA too.
The bills for medical consultations/treatments here in USA are mindblowing.
One suggestion I can make is to have the consultation done with a Dr. with a Community hospital in your area as their rates may be lower.
Or if you know some good doctor in the related field he may not even charge you for just consultation. Some hospitals also just "cancel " the bill or lower the payments to a good extent on humanitarian grounds.

[pralay]

Originally Posted by TheRealCanadian

Thankfully my tax dollars are not used for this.

I wish people were really concerned about proper utilization of tax dollars. If they were utilized properly, I am sure our immigration system would be better off and people would not have to wait that long to get GC. It seems a few visitors medical costs is the only bottleneck for proper utilization of our tax dollars.

[brb2]

Not having insurance one pays top dollars for all procedures including office consultations. Medicare has agreements with hospitals for procedures and pays the least. Then come the insurance companies who too get a discount. Finally the non-insured who pay the highest fee with no discounts and which generally leads to unpaid bills (most common reason for bankruptcies).

Regarding the tax payers picking up the bill - not really! The doctors and the hospitals all sell the debt to debt collection agencies for pennies in the dollars who in turn then go after the patient. If it is a county hospital then the debt is just written off as unrecoverable. The federal government often re-imburses hospitals a certain sum for treating emergency "undocumented" patients.

[arizonian]

Unless you expect him to fall sick during the trip, do not waste money on insurance. Even if you do, check with them as to what is covered and what is not.

I am not sure what country you are from. You will get much more for your money's worth by having the workup done in your home country. Most diagnostic tests and medical eval can be done in your home country for a fraction of the cost to you here, without much compromise in quality.

[pralay]

Originally Posted by arizonian

Unless you expect him to fall sick during the trip, do not waste money on insurance. Even if you do, check with them as to what is covered and what is not

In addition to the notes above, in general probably your parents knows well what kind of sickness they normally get while traveling and what kind of madicines are suitable for them. For example, my parents are in India. They always carry certain medicines while traveling - whether traveling in India or here in USA. Once common sickness while traveling is food poisoning and any bacteria related deseases carried by water. Some important medicines for people who travel from India to USA are medicines for cough (very important for older people), cold. However, these are only expected things. Sickness does not come expected way. So whoever can afford travel insurance, they should take it. On the other side of argument, for any non-pre-existing sickness, probably you have to pay same amount of money for doctors visits what you will be paying for insurance.

Originally Posted by arizonian

I am not sure what country you are from. You will get much more for your money's worth by having the workup done in your home country. Most diagnostic tests and medical eval can be done in your home country for a fraction of the cost to you here, without much compromise in quality.

Partly true. Even though many third world countries have pretty good diagnostics systems and medical facilities - the major problem is access. It require either money-power or some sort of bureaucratic/political influence to get access to those kind of medical facilities/treatments. Secondly, number of those kind of facilities are very limited - compare to number of patients in the country. That causes lots of waiting and frustrations. For example, in conventional treatments, those facilities in India are comparable to most of US medical facilities. There are many very good doctors too. However, US have advantange in many new medicines and experimental medicines - especially for deseases like AIDS, cancer. But even someone, who lives in USA and have a good medical insurance, can have hard time to get coverage for those experimental medicines/treatments.

[TheEnquirer]

i think also that taking an insurance is a better idea.

its a valid point that it does not cover preexisting conditions- but anything can happen here besides the preexisting conditions
atleast have some insurance which have a cover a cettain amount for each situation - I took with IMG - the people are courteous - thankfully i did not have to use their services- so dont know how good/bad they are.

u still have to take care of the complications related to preexisting condns - since insurance will not cover it

[sayedfaisal]

Taking a foreign medical insurance to be used in USA is like buying junk paper.

They want to pay the bills upfront and then file for the claim which they will make sure that you have to run from one pillar to another. In fact, I read on the web, They denied the payment for heart attack under the explaination that cholsteral was build up over the years, hence it pre-existing condition.

If you want still buy the insurance for your father, better buy it from USA rather than foreign countries. At least the Doctor / Hospital do recognize that insurance and you are not paying upfront other than the deductible.

Thanks

[brb2]

Originally Posted by sayedfaisal

Taking a foreign medical insurance to be used in USA is like buying junk paper.

They want to pay the bills upfront and then file for the claim which they will make sure that you have to run from one pillar to another.

Thanks

I agree in most cases foreign insurance is worthless. Here are some horror stories:
http://www.buyamericaninsurance.com/...readentries.do

[sambha]

I have used IMG Global insurance in the past. I chose the VisitorCare plan, limited insurance coverage per day. Worked out to $40 per person. Quite cheap. Some other good insurance companies are listed here.

http://www.nriweb.com/showreviews.php?pc=1400&sc=1403