Health Insurance Question

[justlooking]

I have decent insurance from my school in country, but I had a medical emergency this past summer in the U.S. Although our school policy supposedly covers this, I've found out the hard way, that it doesn't come close to reimbursing me for the kind of charges one racks up for 5 nights in a hospital in the States. I'm still negotiating and sorting things out, but it looks like I'll be on the hook for almost 20 thousand dollars. Essentially, they will pay me back for my expenses only up to what they would cost here where fees are much less expensive.

So my question is if anyone has any advice about how to handle any future emergencies while in America in the summers. I don't want to have to cut our vacations short because I'm so worried about this, but my understanding is I can't get a temporary or emergency policy for my home country.

Any ideas?

[expatscot]

The schools which I have taught at have separate policies for US and non-US staff - the US staff policy will cover them for emergencies in the US, but if we Europeans want to go there we have to find our own policy or pay for the extension. Check your school's policy and make sure you're on the right one - if not you might have some conversations.....

[Thames Pirate]

Our insurance policy does not cover the US, but they have an easy add-on that does. It's relatively inexpensive.

[Thames Pirate]

Sorry, I was trying to add to the post. I was going to add the actual helpful part about looking at travel policies and riders and such both from the US and from abroad. Your local expat boards, etc. might help you find temporary policies.

[PsyGuy]

I dont fault the previous contributors, this isnt something you could have checked and had any assurance with prior to hat happened. You would have gotten the same story no matter how many times you asked or ho many details you probed for. While some ISs do provide separate policies or additional policy coverage, and some regions have extended benefits for those traveling to the US, this doesnt seem to be the case for you. The real problem was that your decent health insurance just wasnt decent enough, and it sounds like there wasnt an option for a US auxiliary policy or rider from your IS, and what you found out was that while you had some coverage, it was going to leave you with a hefty hospital bill.

I would look at the variety of travel health policies available for tourists to the US. They do tend to get pricey the more activities you include but for short periods of about 30 days or less you can get one for a couple hundred USD. Its typically the type of policy that pays after all other health insurance has paid. I liked STA Travelers Explorer plan which as a IT you are eligible for, its USD$200/yr provides a lot of travel benefits as well as 100% of UCR medical and health for travel related emergency care.
Another option is to look at medicaid or CHP (if you have children) in the state your going too, you can probably apply online and the premiums should be nothing or a few dollars since you will essentially have zero US income.
Lastly, you could just not pay, the hospital is going to get what they can from the insurer, and then just write off the rest after sending you some collection bills.

The real issue here is your IS went with a cheaper health insurance plan, and these type of benefits arent something you can negotiate unless your ISs entire faculty wants to take this up as a cause with ownership.

[chiliverde]

World Nomads is supposed to be good. I say supposed because, even though I've used them many times, I've been lucky to never file a claim with them so don't know firsthand.
The US is our home country, but our residency is abroad. Maybe it's the same for you?

[PsyGuy]

I like and would recommend World Nomads as well, STA tends to be easier and less complicated but both offer equivalent plans, STA tends to be more inclusive, World Nomad is more complex, but you can get more customized coverage.