Health Insurance for Immigrants

Farida Nelson said:
Hi, can anybody tell me, is this true?

http://www.insubuy.com/medicare-for-new-immigrants-green-card-holders/
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That all looks pretty accurate. The cost of healthcare in the USA is stupidly high. I have had friends get bills for over $100,000 for a medical issue in the USA while visiting. Another friend got an eye infection that went quite bad and that cost over $50,000.

At the lower end of the scale my daughter had a dentist visit for a checkup the other day - the bill came through at $700. All that was covered through my $1000+ per month policy, BUT bizarrely the insurance did not cover the "oral hygiene advice" - which as far as I can remember was reminding my daughter to floss. That one sentence was itemized at $70. I phoned the dentist and told them they should not expect that payment before hell froze over - and they wiped off that charge. They basically said they always bill the $70 and if the insurance doesn't pay it and the patient complains they will remove the charge. So - the point is - insurance is super expensive.

By the way the insubuy type policies and the one I recommend are ok for short periods (a few months), but they are not a long term solution.
 
That is simply horrible!

I'll tell you why I asked:

We had our airplane tickets for October 5th, we sold our house, packed all of our stuff... And then my husband had a heart attack on Saturday, October 3rd. On October 5th he had a bypass surgery. We did it in one of the best hospitals in Antalya, Turkey. 90% of all the patients were foreigners of all nationalities (german, english, russian etc...) Anyway, my husband is a citizen of Turkey and we payed 300$ for everything, (tests, surgery, anesthesia, medications, food, private room with private bathroom... - everything). We wonder how much that would be if he had a heart attack a week later.... ????:eek:

The problem now is that I have a prearranged employment waiting for me, and my employer said that she won't wait for more than 2 weeks. So, we bought new tickets for October 19th. That will be exactly 14 days after the surgery. And 30 days after of surgery my husband will need to meet with a cardiologist and make some tests, after which the cardiologist will make a statement about the outcome of the surgery, will make an individual physical exercise plan for rehabilitation etc...

After seeing and reading the information about health care in the USA we are really afraid... How much will this cardiologist visit will cost us? The insubuy type policies will probably not work for this kind of situation...

Any thoughts are welcome!
 
Farida Nelson said:
That is simply horrible!

I'll tell you why I asked:

We had our airplane tickets for October 5th, we sold our house, packed all of our stuff... And then my husband had a heart attack on Saturday, October 3rd. On October 5th he had a bypass surgery. We did it in one of the best hospitals in Antalya, Turkey. 90% of all the patients were foreigners of all nationalities (german, english, russian etc...) Anyway, my husband is a citizen of Turkey and we payed 300$ for everything, (tests, surgery, anesthesia, medications, food, private room with private bathroom... - everything). We wonder how much that would be if he had a heart attack a week later.... ????:eek:

The problem now is that I have a prearranged employment waiting for me, and my employer said that she won't wait for more than 2 weeks. So, we bought new tickets for October 19th. That will be exactly 14 days after the surgery. And 30 days after of surgery my husband will need to meet with a cardiologist and make some tests, after which the cardiologist will make a statement about the outcome of the surgery, will make an individual physical exercise plan for rehabilitation etc...

After seeing and reading the information about health care in the USA we are really afraid... How much will this cardiologist visit will cost us? The insubuy type policies will probably not work for this kind of situation...

Any thoughts are welcome!
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Unless you are very wealthy you cannot plan to be uninsured with that sort of situation. Had that event happened on October 6 you would have had a bill of well over $100,000 - probably $200,000.

Is your job going to include immediate health insurance coverage? If so, pre-existing conditions will be covered on any ACA approved plan.

If you are the principal selectee, you might want to consider flying before your husband to give him time to recover and see the cardiologist. There will be other followups.
 
Medicare is for old people. Not sure why you are reading about that. Medicaid is the one for low-income people.
 
Britsimon said:
Unless you are very wealthy you cannot plan to be uninsured with that sort of situation. Had that event happened on October 6 you would have had a bill of well over $100,000 - probably $200,000.

Is your job going to include immediate health insurance coverage? If so, pre-existing conditions will be covered on any ACA approved plan.

If you are the principal selectee, you might want to consider flying before your husband to give him time to recover and see the cardiologist. There will be other followups.
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OMG!!!! It's a miracle that it all happened on October 5th!!!

I guess form now on we will be doing all health related activities in Turkey. It's cheaper to fly back and forth than to get an insurance in the States (which actually doesn't cover everything and you end up paying crazy bills anyway).

USA is a dream country in all meanings, but its medical insurance is the biggest dream spoiler.

We are ok with taking care of our health in Turkey, because we have really awesome doctors here with plenty of experience. Our cardiosurgeon is doing at least 2 bypass surgesies everyday. But about other people?...
 
Farida Nelson said:
OMG!!!! It's a miracle that it all happened on October 5th!!!

I guess form now on we will be doing all health related activities in Turkey. It's cheaper to fly back and forth than to get an insurance in the States (which actually doesn't cover everything and you end up paying crazy bills anyway).

USA is a dream country in all meanings, but its medical insurance is the biggest dream spoiler.

We are ok with taking care of our health in Turkey, because we have really awesome doctors here with plenty of experience. Our cardiosurgeon is doing at least 2 bypass surgesies everyday. But about other people?...
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As you know, not all health problems are able to be scheduled. Some are sudden. Unless you have no money, you cannot have no insurance. You just have to factor that in to your budget - and as I mentioned the best way of doing that is via employment. Jobs often provide fully paid healthcare for the employee and then you can upgrade to include additional family members for a cost.

Also check out healthcare.gov - for ACA plans in the areas where you will be living. If you are on a low income you would get a subsidy, so would not bear the cost of the whole plan.
 
For emergency things like a heart attack if it happened during a period when you had no insurance, and you are low-income, you can get Emergency Medicaid.
 
Britsimon said:
As you know, not all health problems are able to be scheduled. Some are sudden. Unless you have no money, you cannot have no insurance. You just have to factor that in to your budget - and as I mentioned the best way of doing that is via employment. Jobs often provide fully paid healthcare for the employee and then you can upgrade to include additional family members for a cost.

Also check out healthcare.gov - for ACA plans in the areas where you will be living. If you are on a low income you would get a subsidy, so would not bear the cost of the whole plan.
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Thank you, Britsimon, for helping us! We really appreciate it.
I'll be talking with my employer about the possibility of getting an insurance from the school where I'll be teaching. Hopefully it will work.
 
Farida Nelson said:
Thank you, Britsimon, for helping us! We really appreciate it.
I'll be talking with my employer about the possibility of getting an insurance from the school where I'll be teaching. Hopefully it will work.
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School health plans are normally good, will be ACA approved) and probably have no waiting period. Given the fact that you know you will have health issues to deal with - ask about the options which limit your costs in terms of deductibles and co pays etc.
 
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