Wife (GC holder) pregnant. Give birth in foreign country?

mutti_wilson said:
Nothing has lapsed yes. I have 2 months to decide if i use COBRA or do my own thing. The problem is, i would be locked into a $600 a month insurance payment, $3000 deductible, and the 20% of the bill. Being unemployed (for the most part) and getting my own business off the ground, it's a big bill to handle.
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You are never locked into COBRA - you only have a limited time to sign up for it (30-60 days from the qualifying event) but once you sign up, you only pay month to month and you only have coverage while you are paying it. You get a 30 day grace period to pay each month, but once you lapse the 30 days it is cancelled and you can't get it back.

If you are starting your own business - you need to think about your health insurance and start shopping around for other alternatives. In the mean time, you could get the COBRA (month to month) until you have another solution. Just remember - if you don't sign up on time, it's gone. The COBRA is also sometimes needed if any new policy has a pre-existing condition clause. Also look for catastrophic coverage policies - they cover major things, but you cover all the regular stuff.

I'm sorry you are in this position - I've been there before and had to decide if COBRA was a good choice or not, even with the higher price tag.

Here's another thread that dealt with COBRA issues.
http://boards.immigration.com/showthread.php?t=267916
 
By "locked in" i mean, if i were to continue to pay via COBRA for the duration of the pregnancy. Thanks for all the help, eases my mind!
 
I saw Michael Moore's movie "Sicko" today and the special features on the DVD have a segment about the Norwegian healthcare system. Provided the claims in the movie are correct (which I have not independently verified) Norway has one of the best healthcare systems in the world, as others have pointed out here too. All the more reasons for the baby to be born in Norway (perhaps even grow up in Norway?). You should probably make sure the baby has Norwegian as well as US citizenship!
 
To be fair, and I'm sure TheRealCanadian can verify, a great deal of the movie was also spent on presenting advantages of the Canadian healthcare system over the US system. Apparently, some US citizens cross the border regularly into Canada for more affordable healthcare and there's even a "marriage fraud" where people marry Canadian citizens to get access to their health care. At the same time, I've seen reports that senior citizens along the southern border are moving to Mexico and find more accessible/affordable healthcare there than in the US. Pretty alarming. :eek:
 
austriacus said:
To be fair, and I'm sure TheRealCanadian can verify, a great deal of the movie was also spent on presenting advantages of the Canadian healthcare system over the US system.
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That wouldn't surprise me. It's also amusing to someone who suffered under the Canadian system for 25 years. It's a wonderful system for catastrophic issues, or if you have connections or an existing relationship with a physician. Otherwise, it stinks.

In America, anyone can get health care but not necessarily insurance. In Canada, everyone can get insurance but not necessarily health care.
 
TheRealCanadian said:
That wouldn't surprise me. It's also amusing to someone who suffered under the Canadian system for 25 years. It's a wonderful system for catastrophic issues, or if you have connections or an existing relationship with a physician. Otherwise, it stinks.

In America, anyone can get health care but not necessarily insurance. In Canada, everyone can get insurance but not necessarily health care.
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Ain't that the truth! From someone who suffered through it for 30 years...

Great summary - great for catastrophic issues, but lousy for day-to-day stuff.

My example is that I had a relative break her wrist in multiple places. After it was quickly placed in a cast before surgery by an othopedic surgeon, she ended up having to wait 7 weeks to be seen by the othopedic surgeron - who had to re-break it again to fix everything. What a shame... it used to be a great system... until things changed in the mid 80's and then it went downhill.
 
TNguy78 said:
Ain't that the truth! From someone who suffered through it for 30 years...

Great summary - great for catastrophic issues, but lousy for day-to-day stuff.

My example is that I had a relative break her wrist in multiple places. After it was quickly placed in a cast before surgery by an othopedic surgeon, she ended up having to wait 7 weeks to be seen by the othopedic surgeron - who had to re-break it again to fix everything. What a shame... it used to be a great system... until things changed in the mid 80's and then it went downhill.
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That pretty much sums up the British system as well. Book in advance to be ill, 'cos if you don't you may be dead by the time they get around to treating you.
 
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