This is not related to Taiwan, but my wife and I are considering moving to back to the states since we are having a child and both feel the states are a better place to raise or child than Taipei City. We are currently in the process of applying for the green card and are initially getting the K visa.
My question is, is it possible to get insurance for her since she is my spouse without her having the green card and only th K visa? Either through paying monthly for the insurance or getting it through an employer? Thanks for any advice given!
[quote=“cw.jc”]This is not related to Taiwan, but my wife and I are considering moving to back to the states since we are having a child and both feel the states are a better place to raise or child than Taipei City. We are currently in the process of applying for the green card and are initially getting the K visa.
My question is, is it possible to get insurance for her since she is my spouse without her having the green card and only th K visa? Either through paying monthly for the insurance or getting it through an employer? Thanks for any advice given![/quote]
Yes, you can get your wife private health insurance. Without a SS#, you might have to show additional paperwork (e.g. marriage certificate). For a quick look at what is available in all 50 states, you can go to insweb.com/. I’ve used both services to do on-line shopping for private insurance (auto, health).
I’m sure you can buy health insurance for the both of you in the US regardless of visa status, but my guess is that it will cost at least USD500-600/month. And that’s the least of your worries. Not only is the cost of health care in the US now beyond the ability of (40 million?) Americans to acquire it, but even if you have insurance, your insurance company will do everything in its power not to provide you with needed care. This is why more and more people in the US who are fully covered are coming to Taiwan for health care.
I had a friend visit Taiwan recently (family visit, not for health care) who needed a simple injection of cortizone in his spine to reduce painful swelling in a disc. His doctor in the US said he needed it, but his insurance refused to pay for it. He’s a fully insured, full-time teacher in a high school in California. He had the procedure done in Taiwan for USD100. It would have been essentially ‘free’ for someone living here and covered by national health insurance.
The health care system in the US is a complete mess. The health care in Taiwan is much better than it is there. My advice: look before you leap.
Very true, danroggenkamp, when I applied for insurance at blue cross and blue shield, and then my doctor (under the new system) said I had high blood pressure and gave me medicine, blue cross said I had to provide information about every doctor I had visited in the previous year (12 month period) to prove that this was not a pre-exisiting condition…naturally, they don’t cover pre-existing conditions. Be careful cw.jc, pregancy (sp?) is definitely a pre-existing condition
[quote=“danroggenkamp”]I’m sure you can buy health insurance for the both of you in the US regardless of visa status, but my guess is that it will cost at least USD500-600/month.
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