Saturday, June 22, 2013

Oh-Bummer, Bummer Care

California has just released its Obamacare health insurance plans: four levels.  Silver is the second-cheapest, $321/month, plus $2000 deductible, plus $45 copay per doctor’s visit.

You can get a full year of health insurance other places for less than one month’s of California’s low-budget plan.  Local insurance in Panama runs about $100/month.  Uruguay reportedly has plans cheaper than that.  Mexico runs under $500 a year!  All-inclusive, no copays.

You can obtain international traveler’s insurance, which includes coverage in the US, for about $300/month.  And it’s better than California’s cheapskate coverage.

So now a reader reports to an expat newsletter that she received a letter from her state’s senator, Sen. Nelson, stating that all US taxpayers, including non-residents and expats, are required to obtain health insurance or pay the tax for being uninsured.  Despite the fact that US insurance policies are worthless in foreign countries!

Errant nonsense!  US Congress has totally run off the rails here.  If you are reasonably healthy, your total medical bills for a year can run less than a month's premium for the far superior insurance plans available in many countries.

What a bummer!  Worse, not even Senators and Representatives have read their own healthcare bill.  According to that, non-resident US citizens are supposedly exempt from US Obamacare requirements.

Be careful!  Study the law, and study the regulations.  Or find a Legal-Eagle expert to sort out this mess.  Alas (or thank goodness?!), I am not an attorney.  I do my homework, do the best I can finding sources, but it seems even the law as enacted might not be the final word.
 
May your road rise to meet you!
Ann

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