4 ms·
We've been here for nearly two years now, but when I was interviewing with the intent of moving to the US I was very direct with employers about our insurance r
by roganartu 7y ago
We've been here for nearly two years now, but when I was interviewing with the intent of moving to the US I was very direct with employers about our insurance requirements to make sure her quality of care would not be reduced. I turned down some better offers because their insurance was worse (one company would've required her to move to a known-worse treatment until she demonstrated it didn't work for her. This escalating method of treating her condition is well known to have much poorer long-term outcomes but it's cheaper).
Re avoiding treating people with chronic conditions, my understanding is that used to be a (state-by-state) thing that the ACA federally outlawed. We live in NYC where the state had already outlawed it, so even if the ACA is rolled back we should be fine.
We have very good insurance atm. I would go so far as to say, ignoring the general craziness of dealing with the US system and the occasional billing frustration, we have better coverage now than we did in Australia because _almost everything_ is covered (even most things Australia would consider "elective" and hence one would pay for out of pocket). We pay a token $1/month for premiums because law says we have to contribute and my employer pays our deductible. As long as we stay in-network we have basically no out of pocket costs.
If I lose or leave my job I have to find a new one and transfer my visa within 30 days, or leave the country within another 90 days after that. There's a thing called COBRA which allows you to pay a relatively low fee (iirc it's ~$700/m) to continue with exactly the same insurance post-employment for a short period (I think 9-12 months? Unsure exactly). Otherwise we'd just move back to Australia. We're both Australian citizens and we aren't really interested in making the transition to being US permanent residents.
- mikestew 7y agoThere's a thing called COBRA which allows you to pay a relatively low fee (iirc it's ~$700/m) to continue Boy, are you going to be in for a surprise if you ever utilize COBRA. If there's a "we" involved, plan on about double that, because you will pay the full, undiscounted premium. They don't want you on that plan, and they only do it because of federal law, so they're going to make it as unappealing as possible. insurance post-employment for a short period (I think 9-12 months? Unsure exactly) 18 months.
- eq_sd_ 7y agoThe "relatively low free" part threw me off. Is that a joke? COBRA was $600/mo the one time I might have needed it. That was 6x what I was paying at the job I was in before.