Health insurance for Green Card holders
Persons which hold Green Cards have particular options for visitor health insurance. Unfortunately, these options (more like limitation) are not obvious from the brochures and information about the many visitor insurance policies that are available. The worst situation would be to purchase a policy and then come to find out that you will not be covered because you were not eligible for the policy in the first place. Most visitor policies are only temporary insurance (from 5 days to 12 months only; although some are renewable for more time) for temporary visitors. A green card holder is considered a US permanent resident (whether or not the person actually does reside here permanently) and therefore is often NOT eligible for a short-term visitor health insurance policy.
US Medical insurance compulsory for Green card holders
The US government has proposed a new rule on October 4th 2019 which states that prospective new immigrants to the US are required to show proof of having proper health insurance coverage in the US. This new rule is expected to take effect from November 3rd 2019.This rule will impact new immigrants to the US who are family members of current US citizens and are applying for visas to come to the US as immigrants. Failure to show proper US immigrant health insurance will be grounds to deny the visa according to this new rule.
While details of the new immigrant insurance requirements are still to be announced, the best US immigrant insurance plans that we offer on American Visitor Insurance work as short term health insurance which US immigrants can use till they are eligible for domestic US insurance plans.
It is because of this reason that we, at American Visitor Insurance, have specifically asked all our providers about the eligibility of the green card holder. The options are then down to three policies. One policy, Patriot America, (and actually any of that family of product: Patriot Platinum) is available ONLY if the insured can put down a legitimate address outside the US as a home country. So, for persons who travel back and forth from a foreign country and spend some time in the US, this is often the most economical option which offers comprehensive coverage. You can buy Patriot America Insurance policy and look at Patriot America Brochure for more plan details .
An option that has been specifically designed for the green card holder is found in Inbound Immigrant. This policy offered by Seven Corners is for green card holders (although non-green card holders can also apply). It is renewable up to 5 years which is the time it takes for an immigrant to become eligible to apply for medicare. This is a fixed policy which has limits on benefits for each medical expense. However, the coverage is fairly high for a fixed plan and can be a very economical option for green card holders. You can buy Inbound Immigrant Insurance and for more plan details look at the Inbound Immigrant Brochure.
If you have other questions or concerns about finding coverage for a green card holder, please contact us and we can give you a specific quote and/or recommendation. As ever, we wish you safe and happy travels!
