As we know health insurance in the UK is for the rich/fortunate as realistically thanks to the NHS we dont have to or need to buy health insurance yet.
Here in the US, you have to buy your health insurance and it can be as complacated as car insurance. Now nurses coming from the UK will normally have their health/dental insurance paid for by their company-a big perk of the job. You will have the oportunity to purchase Short term/long term disability insurance and if you come with OGP you have 14 days to complete the forms and return it back to the company. I strongly advice you to purchase this insurance the payments are minimal compared to having no wages, should something unfortunate happen to you. Other nurses coming with different agencies or direct with the hospital please make sure you look into obtaining this cover. Normally the first 15 days of sick leave will not be covered.
You will also have the oportunity to purchase your spouse and dependants insurance via your company, and for the OGP nurses this will be around $270 for your spouse and $550 for your family per month. You can get health insurance cheaper yourself but most companies will not cover immigrants until they have lived in the USA for more than a year.
You will still have to pay towards your health care and this is called co payments and depending on what you access depends on the amount you pay-$25,$50 or $75.
Now if you are unfortunate and have to take more than 30 days off work due to illness. Your health insurance will be cancelled back to the last day/night you worked! This can be a shock because if you have acccessed hospitals/medical care for the said illness you will now owe all the money for this medical attention.
So what happens when your medical coverage is cancelled? A government run company called Cobra, will offer you 18 months of health insurance but you now have to pay for this coverage and it can be quite expensive as it will be backdated to the last day you worked. If you are paying for your dependants via your company their insurance will be cancelled too, so you may be looking at $250 per person/per month, backdated so this will be a considerable amount of money intially to pay out. In order to access Cobra, you may have no choice you can only recieve the coverage if you pay the backdated premiums. Of course the advantage is those huge medical bills are then covered by Cobra.
I do hope you all find this information interesting, please do not hestitate to contact me should you have any worries, concerns or questions.
That illustrates the difference between here and the USA, the USA is fine so long as you have a job, and money in the bank, once that goes out of the window, you still have to pay for healthcare and benefits are not the same as the UK, here at least we have the health service to rely on if we are ill, even if sometimes we dont get the service right, it is always there!
im not painting everyone with the same colour brush but, people who live on state benefits here generally do as well as someone who works, because of this the system is under strain as many abuse it
at the moment the nhs in part is free but i can see it movin to the way it is in the usa if you think about the amount you pay in national insurance and for the dentist if you are lucky enough to have one and the cost if you need glasses and the endless cuts yhey are making in the nhs the only people that are ok are the people who dont work or pay national insurance
Specializes in renal,peritoneal dialysis, medicine.
i agree, it all need a overhaul, we have a huge problem here where many are claiming and using the system without ever paying in, lord knows how much longer a small country like ours can carry on under this strain.
I'm sorry this has happened to you Kay. It's quite the bad intro to American life. The medical system here is extremely confusing for new people... heck, it's confusing to most Americans. Medical bills were the leading cause of bankruptcy declarations in this country for years, though I'm not sure how the new laws will affect that since those bills are not wiped out anymore. If you don't really know your policy inside and out, it's very easy to think you are more covered than you really are. I got that last week when I had my surgery and was surprised to find out my plan included a $500 outpatient fee on top of the $3500 deductible that I already knew about...
Believe me it is nothing like the UK, to access the pain rehab specialist was $300 fortunatly they took a lien with my attorneys. I asked the attorneys yesterday what chance do I have of getting an intrim payment and they said No chance. So money now is getting scarce.....................of course I have heard nothing from my agency in weeks.
I took the same things for granted when I lived in Canada. We complained about waiting too long there, but the money concern wasn't a problem at all. I'm sure you'll get money eventually, it's just that doesn't help much when you need it now. I'm not surprised about your agency either. Fair weather friends eh?
Can anyone advise on health insurance for the first 3 months we are in the US. Health insurance covered by employment won't start for 3 months. Wondered how others have got by??
Specializes in renal,peritoneal dialysis, medicine.
We are getting ours from NatWest and they are aware of the situation.
About £450 ish for family of 4 for 6 months.
If you are going to FL you will not work for 4-6 weeks while waiting for SSN and then it will be 3 months. So best to get 6 month cover.
Hope this helps
hi ann
i read a comment from someone in FL who said you can get your ssn the same day if you queue at he office? cant you do that rather than wait so long, it was Ray on FL days forum who said it i think
Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.
something I will be looking into as hoping to come over for atleast 3-4 weeks before starting work so will need some sort of cover to tide over until work insurance kicks in
topscot
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