Coming to the USA or Canada – For visiting / those immigrating or returning home – Long-term or short-term

A health insurance company is now offering a “guarantee issue” plan. In insurance jargon, this means that no one applying for this plan can be declined–whatever their condition. Thus if a person cannot get insurance anywhere else, this plan will work for him. It provides hospital indemnity, intensive care, and surgical benefits along with co-pays for visits to the doctor and emergency room. There are four options ranging from $184 to $300 monthly for individual coverage and $304 to $560 monthly for family coverage. This is not a comprehensive health insurance policy but meets a real need for those who what a cost-effective policy cannot purchase, due to pre-existing conditions on a standard health insurance policy. You can apply online for coverage. If you would like to receive brochures, please send us your address so we can mail you one.

One of the most frequent questions asked is, “Will this plan cover me in the USA too?” We do have plans that cover you on both sides of the ocean, but there are limitations. Several of the career insurance plans will cover you for six months in the USA, as long as you are outside the USA six months in any given year. These plans will also cover you for one month before you leave the USA for your initial overseas assignment.

There are some folks who prefer a 12-month furlough. We have one plan that will cover you in the USA for a 12-month stretch, as long as you have been outside the USA for 12 months. Short-term plans will cover you in the USA too. Some have furlough riders; others give you two weeks of coverage in the USA. One plan grants five days of coverage in the USA for every month overseas, with a maximum of two months of coverage in the USA in a policy year.

You have been overseas for two years or longer, and planned to stay as a career worker. Now, due to family reasons, you have to return to the USA. Can you get health insurance immediately? Yes!

We now have a policy that will cover you for your first two years while you are re-establishing yourself in the USA. The only qualifications are that you had a residence outside the USA and that you apply for this plan within 12 months of your return. So, if you have been overseas and are planning to settle back into the USA for an indefinite period, please write or call. We will be happy to help you find good, quick, inexpensive, and suitable health insurance for your first two years at home.

The problem with many (most?) international (non-American) health insurance plans is that they will not cover Americans when furloughing in the USA. We have solutions for insurance for home country visits. One of our plans permits you to use your non-USA address as your residence and then take out short-term insurance as a foreign national visiting the USA. This plan is only for those who are planning to return overseas. Thus you can get coverage for one year of furlough. If you are returning to the USA after several years abroad and need insurance to cover you while settling in, we have another plan for you. It is a plan that can be used for immigrants or Americans that are returning permanently to the USA. If one of these scenarios describes your situation, please contact us so we can help you find such home country coverage.

The insurance plans and coverage are grouped in four main categories. Click on the category you are interested in to jump to solution options.

• CAREER HEALTH PLANS FOR FAMILIES & INDIVIDUALS
• SHORT-TERM HEALTH PLANS
• SHORT-TERM “TEAM” HEALTH PLANS
• MISCELLANEOUS INSURANCE PLANS
• NOT SURE? GET A FREE QUOTE

Some workers continue to ask for plans with high deductibles that will give them ongoing coverage if they relocate back into the USA. Almost all international health plans require that you spend at least half of your time outside the USA. Thus, if you return permanently to the USA, you are forced to find a domestic health plan. This is generally not difficult if you have not developed some chronic health problem. If you have, it is very difficult to get adequate domestic health insurance. We have a plan with deductibles from $500 to $20,000 that will give you ongoing coverage in the USA without a stipulation that you spend time outside the USA in any given year. By choosing a high deductible with this plan, you can also minimize the monthly premium. If this is something that interests you, please let us know. We will be happy to send you the information.

Some Americans needs coverage before they leave the USA, and others while they are on furlough. And even if you are not going overseas, you often need short-term insurance coverage between jobs.

Good Neighbor Insurance has a new website where you can apply for insurance coverage for as short as one month or as long as one year. It provides guarantee issue, which simply means if you can answer no to five medical questions, you will get your coverage.

To get a quote just hit the apply now button. You can get the quote; and then if you wish, proceed with the application. However, if you don’t like the quote, just cancel out.

Sometimes international workers can’t get Medicare coverage for various reasons. Sometimes it is because they opted out of Social Security as a young person working overseas, or they married an American and never did sign up for Social Security, or maybe they just want to retire in the USA because of family and friends here. Now at age 65 and no Medicare coverage, what is one to do?

We now have a company that will give year-to-year coverage in the USA for those over 65. It is a major medical plan that will cover your medical needs and can be renewed for years. Also, we have several other international plans that will cover those over 65 for several years in the USA. Finally, we have an international insurance plan, if taken out while you are outside the USA, will cover you for the rest of your life in the USA.

All of these plans should be considered “catastrophic” plans, as they do not have all the bells and whistles of standard plans such as co-pays, preventive care check-ups, and prescription cards. If you are interested in retirement age medical coverage in the USA, please contact us.

What happens when an international worker comes back to the USA for a short furlough, or a Canadian wants to visit the USA? We have one good plan that will insure such a person based on their overseas residency. If they have been working in Japan, they will be insured, as would a Japanese citizen visiting the USA. The short-term plan we have is not based on citizenship as criteria for providing coverage–but on residence.

If a person is returning to the USA and has no plans to return overseas, we have several short-term plans that are available. The minimum coverage is for one month, but coverage can be taken out for up to three years. Since there are a variety of deductibles there are a variety of rates. For example, a 28-year-old male can get coverage with a $500 deductible and a 80/20 co-insurance for either $75 a month or $101 a month, depending on the plan chosen. Obviously, as the deductible increases, the rates decrease. You can apply for month-by-month coverage and also cancel the insurance when you wish.

Just this month I received a call from a hospital in the state of New York. The hospital staff worker was asking about insurance for a young woman who has come down with lymphoma cancer. This woman and her family were raising support in order to go to Peru, and were planning to get insurance once they left the USA. But they had no insurance while raising support. Now they have a serious medical problem, so the hospital personnel found us on the web and called asking if we could help them with insurance. Of course, insurance companies will not cover such pre-existing conditions. If this family would have contacted us beforehand, we could have informed them of several short-term plans that provide good coverage in the USA. They could have taken out insurance for a month, or six months, or a year. We have good insurance for people who are in the USA on furlough or coverage for them before they leave the USA. The application process is simple, and the health insurance is very cost-effective..

Almost all USA insurance companies provide short-term insurance plans for people between jobs, between school and jobs, or who don’t want to pay the high premiums for a long-term plan. The disadvantage of these plans is that they are short-term; and if you developed a chronic disease, you would only be covered up to the expiration date of the insurance plan. The flip side is that they are a lot less expensive than regular long-term plans.

If you need short-term insurance coverage before leaving for the field we suggest the “Secure Med,” “Select,” or “Horizon” plan. The only plan that will work for furloughing missionaries is the “Horizon” plan. All of these plans provide good coverage. We also have several other short-term plans for the furloughing international worker and the worker settling back into the USA

We now have short-term health and trip cancellation insurance for teams and individuals traveling within the USA–including Alaska and Hawaii–and also for Canadians traveling in Canada or the USA. This insurance will cover all trips at least 200 miles from your residence. The plan is called Trip Protector, and it provides a minimum of $50,000 of medical coverage and $250,000 of medical evacuation.

If you are applying for a plan where the trip cost is $0, then just type $0 into the box where the trip cost is requested. When applying online you will receive your confirmation of coverage via e-mail. An example of the insurance cost: An 18 year old would pay only $24 for up to one month of coverage.