Friday, April 18, 2008

Short term medical insurance in New York

New York residents face a triple threat when it comes to short term health insurance. First, the insurance products used in most states that are specifically designed for this purpose are not available in New York. Second, the coverage that is available is slow; often taking at least a month just to get through the manual application process. Third, the coverage is expensive. No pricing discount is recognized for the likelihood that this insurance will not be in force long enough to accrue catastrophic claims.

The easiest solution is to buy temporary insurance while staying in another state. Insurance issued in another state is valid in New York and allows treatment with any doctor or hospital in the U.S. There is no requirement that the address on temporary health insurance be your permanent residential address. Some New Yorkers residents purchase health insurance while staying at their out-of-state colleges, while at their second home in another state or while on vacation or visiting relatives. The insurance covers treatment while they are away from home as well as with the doctors and hospitals at home in New York. Almost all short term medical insurance is purchased online and most offer immediate download of the policy and insurance ID cards. Most insurance companies allow you to have the policy mailed back to a New York address if you will be returning from your trip soon.

The only other possible alternatives we can offer are:
1. Core Health Insurance – a limited benefit policy that does a fairly good job at mimicking the benefits of major medical insurance
2. International Medical Insurance - for individuals who are not permanent residents of U.S.
3. Inbound Immigrant Insurance – for individuals who have recently moved to the U.S.

If none of these options will work then it is especially important to explore all options to keep, extend or convert prior health insurance regardless of the higher cost.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

NY residents applying for insurance using a non NY address? Is that legal? I am not sure your agency should be advocating something that could potentially be a HUGE E&O violation. If the plan is not available in NY, wouldn't you have to go out of state to use the insurance? And calling the Amilgo plan the ONLY plan with online support? Hogwash. My insurance company has online support, beleive me, I have used it frequently. Your company scares me. It seems to shell out dangerous advise and makes it appear as though you are the ONLY agency that offers things you can most certainly find elsewhere.I'm sure you won't publish my comment, but it's one that needs to be made nonetheless.

Tony Novak said...

Legal contracts originated outside of New York state are honored within New York state. This includes insurance contracts. The domestic medical insurance plans covered in this discusion provide coverage throughout the entire U.S., including New York state.

It is legal for a resident of any state to use their current residence instead of their permanent legal residence when applying for temporary medical insurance. This approach is used by many New Yorkers to get affordable health insurance while traveling or attending school.

Insurance, like other legal contracts, is controlled by the state of issuance. The state of legal residency is generally not an issue in the control of a contract. It is not unusual for individuals to choose the location of contract origination in order to gain more favorable treatment under state law.

Certain provisions of insurance law are employed to ensure that people do not take advantage of this provision. For example, it would be illegal to "fake" an address outside of New York. We are cetainly not advicating that any peron violate any provision of state law.