After reading through the HU section on insurance, I spent a few discouraging days of emailing, reading websites, "contact us" pages, etc blah blah, with this result:

World Nomads, which worked well for my Canadian friends who have their own insurance while in Canada, only insures you for travel outside your own country, yet I have no health insurance in the USA. (A common problem here.) I would like to tour in my own country too! Many of the UK sites exclude USA. The sites I mailed either replied saying that they offer nothing to USA residents, or they do not reply at all. One UK site would not let me past the "contact us" form; it forced me to enter a UK airport and postcode, and would not accept any when I did. MedJetAssist never answered.

I've exhausted what I know. I think Markel or other motorcycle insurers can add health coverage, but I am - or was - researching emergency health insurance that would cover being hurt and sick even if it didn't happen on my motorcycle.

Is there some ban by the US insurance companies? What kind of emergency-only (you know, not doctor checkups and suchlike) can be had in the US?
Thank you.

Your inquiry is not at all clear, but I'll give a brief answer to the question I think you're asking. FWIW, I live in your city, so my experience should relate (health insurance, like other insurance, differs by state, so what works for a Washington resident won't necessarily work for someone from anywhere else).

When I needed health insurance I applied (a slow process) and purchased (an expensive process) private insurance. You can do the same. Start your research at Health insurance, and settle in for a bit. A public alternative is currently not being funded, but who knows--it might come back some day: Washington Basic Health.

If you continue to conclude that you don't want coverage of routine stuff, but want to cover yourself against major, catastrophic occurrences, you want a plan with a high deductible: each year you pay the first $1000, $5000 or whatever, and the insurance then kicks in to cover most of whatever comes after. If you have a million-dollar cancer or accident, you'll be glad to pay the first $5k, right?

Such a policy might be relatively cheap, but the operative word is "relatively." A couple of years ago I was paying $600 per month ($7200 per year) for a high deductible policy.

You need to allow time for all of this. If you've got a lot of pre-existing conditions--or even if you've had an assortment of treatments during the past couple of years--you might get denied normal coverage and kicked into a high risk pool. That's what happened to me, and that's one reason my insurance cost so much.

Last note: all this is in a state of flux, and will be changing in the years to come whether or not the current national healthcare plan takes full effect. But remember that even if you carry repatriation insurance (i.e. medivac) while traveling, you'll need USA insurance to take advantage once they airlift you home.

That's how it works here, so if you don't like it you might think about voting for national, single-payer health care like most civilized countries have got. In the meantime, you now know what to do.

Hope that's helpful.

Mark

Thank you. It wasn't greatly helpful. Yet I am checking out the Commissioner's site in another window now. I'm healthy. I frequently have no employer coverage, often due to having no employer. Travel-only or even motorcycle with medical seemed like the only inexpensive thing available - only to EU, UK and Australian residents. Or those leaving their home country, which presently I am not. I have always planned to vote for a single payer system first chance I get.

Not greatly helpful because.....you were asking about something else? You were hoping for a solution which doesn't exist?

Private medical insurance covering Americans in America is expensive, and it's getting more so. You choice, AFAIK, is expensive vs. ridiculously expensive.

Good luck.

Mark

I don't understand what Washington did to MedJet?


"Who Can Get MedjetAssist? MedjetAssist memberships are available to residents of the United States, Canada and Mexico except Washington State residents"

This is also an unhelpful reply but I suspect the reason travel insurance is cheaper for UK, EU and Australian residents is that all the insurance has to do is pay for initial treatment where you need it then get you home where you will be passed onto the relevant health service, the wonderful NHS here in the UK. I would guess for US citizens it would then have to pay for the rest of the treatment once it has got you home.