9

I'm a British citizen who is normally resident in the US and my health insurance through Premera (an individual plan, not a group plan or through my employer) is a very cushy plan with solid international coverage through Blue Cross / Blue Shield's "Blue Card" programme (provided by AXA, I believe).

As I'm no-longer considered a British resident (and neither pay any UK National Insurance contributions) I believe I'm not eligible for free-at-the-point-of-delivery healthcare, including emergency treatment; but the UK NHS accepts Blue Card insurance so I wouldn't be facing a crippling hospital bill if I were to be hit by a London double-decker bus tomorrow.

I'm currently visiting my parents in the UK and I'll be returning to the US in mid-January.

As it so happens, starting on 1st of January 2017, Premera has decided to eliminate my entire healthcare plan, and also raise insurance premiums by 25% on top of what I'm already paying for the next-closest plan. Among the regressive changes with the new plan is the removal of international health insurance. This is a problem: I'll be uninsured in the UK after midnight US Pacific time on New Years Day.

(This is likely due to the ACA's knock-on effects - but please make no political "thanks, Obama" comments).

So far from what I can tell travel insurance providers require you to buy coverage before you leave the country, sometimes as much as a week in advance.

What options do I have for buying insurance for a couple of weeks while I'm already out of the country?

pnuts
  • 28,474
  • 3
  • 81
  • 175
Dai
  • 568
  • 3
  • 13

2 Answers2

1

Here are three possible options that appeared on the first results page of a Google search for uk health insurance for non residents:

They all look to be brokers who should have access to a range of insurers. Brokers take a percentage fee, and you should get a quote from more than one broker and ask them to match/beat each other's quotes.

A E
  • 6,556
  • 31
  • 40
-3

This seems like an excellent thing to not worry about.

Yes, you could hypothetically be hit by a bus, in a way that would be very serious but non-fatal and not the bus's fault. Let's say it causes a medical bill of $50,000.

Well, so what? $50,000 is a lot of money, but not that much. It's the cost of a pretty nice car. I don't know what your job is, but you'd probably have to work several years to pay it off.

That would suck, but, again, so what? The bus could also kill you outright, but you completely shrug off that possibility as unimportant.

And what's the alternative? Go to a huge amount of trouble to pay insurance, with a terrible expected payoff; you'd probably pay two or three times the actuarial risk.

Better, I think, to wait for your situation to stabilize and buy appropriate insurance for the long term.

Michael Lorton
  • 8,700
  • 28
  • 36