J2 Visa Insurance Forum

Hello there,

I am a 40-year-old J-1 visa scholar. I have a wife who is 38 years-old and has L-1A visa and her own health insurance via her employer now. However, she will leave the company on 3/31/2019 and is pregnant. Therefore, she will apply for a J-2 visa and subscribe to the health insurance which covers the period from 4/1/2019 to 9/30/2019. Could you make sure whether your plan meets the following conditions?

Required Coverage:

• $100,000 USD per accident & illness in medical coverage.
• Deductible cannot exceed $500 USD per accident or illness.
• Coinsurance cannot exceed 25%.
• Medical evacuation coverage must be at least $50,000 USD.
• Repatriation coverage must be at least $25,000 USD.
• Pre-existing conditions must be a covered benefit. The waiting period for benefit coverage cannot exceed 12 months.
  Please note:Policys with coverage for only Acute onset of pre-existing conditions do not meet this requirement.
• Carrier must be at least A-rated or backed by the full faith and credit of the Exchange Visitors government.

Thank you for your consideration. I am looking forward to hearing from you.
Akihiro Shimomura,

Thank you for contacting us at American Visitor Insurance for your J2 Visa health insurance needs!. We do have insurance to cover J1 visa holders. However, no visitor (or J visa) plan will cover pre-existing conditions and certainly not the wellness visits needed for a pregnancy and delivery. The best option that I can think of is to extend the coverage she has now through her employer. This is a right from the HIPAA law (not sure if it applies to non-US citizens, but you can give it a shot). It allows you to continue to purchase the same insurance plan; however, the employer may no longer pay any subsidy (and can charge you 10% fee) so the cost may be higher than she was paying previously. However, that way you can get a pregnancy covered that started under that plan. This is the only way that I can think of that she can have coverage for her pregnancy.

If that previous plan does not meet all the details of the J requirement (it may not have repatriation and emergency medical evacuation); we do offer a product that ONLY covers that component, so you would not have to pay much more to meet additional requirements. You can find information on that policy here:

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Otherwise, you will have to pay out of pocket for all maternity costs for your wife and child. Most visitor policies will allow a child 14 days old to be added to the plan, but all care before that will also be out of pocket and plans generally do not cover wellness.
You can compare J visa coverage plans here, but note that they do not cover pre-existing conditions with no waiting period and they will ALL exclude a pregnancy that started before the start date of the policy.

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Do let us know if you have further questions or concerns.

Sincerely,
www.americanvisitorinsurance.com
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+1 (877) 340 7910Reviewed & Updated : February 2020