Moving to NY, insurance question, lie about pre-exisiting UC?

Group insurance through employers usually covers preexisting conditions for spouses after 6-12 months. This is handled by state law. You will either be cover or not. The premium will be the same.

Lying is criminal fraud and not a good idea. They could dump you off the policy for doing so.

It should be easy to check if you are covered for preexisting or not. My guess would be that in NY it is on a group policy. Ask her employer or check the state insurance commision

@ AZYooper,
If your first statement of 6-12 months holds true then I guess I need to get personal insurance for that period.
Frankly, I couldn't digest lying idea either, not out of crime fear but out of the pain I will have to go through. The first year of UC just flashed in front of eyes and my reaction was OMG!!

@ notsosicklygirl,
HealthNY won't cover me as my wife's employer contributes to the comprehensive insurance plan.

Honestly, Sweden is SUCH A BLISS. No such insurance mess. I pay tax through my nose, >34% on my meager income but have little to worry on this front.

Post Edited (deltaforce) : 12/5/2010 6:13:52 AM (GMT-7)

Sorry to go off topic a bit. TraciZ, I noticed in your signature that you had 2+ years of remission from UC. Was that with or without medication? Did you change your diet? (I tried looking at your previous posts but can only seem to find the last 10 posts)...

This is not the place to ask such a question. How can we advise you to do something illegal?

Group insurance policies will not exclude you for having a preX, nor will they deny you benefits (group insurance is the type that you get through employers such as that you are going to receive through your wife's employer). This is different from how individual insurance works. If you were seeking an individual policy either your condition would not be covered in that policy or, as is most likely with a UC diagnoses, you would not be able to get individual health coverage at all. However, group policies can impose a wait period during which time they will not cover preexisting conditions. That period is generally no longer than 12 months (I cant remember if this is legislated). Some companies chose to impose this wait time and others do not. Firstly, you should find out if there is in fact a wait time for preX coverage. If there is, perhaps you can prove continuous "creditable coverage". This is a stretch but ...... as per HIPAA, if you can prove continuous "creditable coverage" for 12 months prior to enrolling in a group plan, without a break in that coverage of more than 63 days you will not have a wait period. I am really not sure how that would work for someone coming from another country that has a public health system. I am from Canada (where there is a government run, public healthcare system) and when I moved to the States I did not have to worry about this as my employer plan did not impose a wait time on preX's. When I changed jobs I already had the 12 months of continuous creditable coverage. However, being as Sweden also has public health and you have been covered by this system, I wonder if you could use this as continuous creditable coverage if your employer plan imposes a wait period. You would have to contact the insurance company and find out. A public healthcare system is after all creditable coverage. Just a shot in the dark.

Dont lie - if you were found out it would be a very bad situation. Plus, you will not be able to show any of your medical history to your new docs. jo

@ OldHat,
May be I am worrying for no reason. As I have said in my original post, my wife hasn't received the papers yet. As soon as she receives the papers, she will check through. Since the holiday period is coming up, we are not going to have much time in our hand, should there be any glitch and that put me under stress. On the top of that when this colleague of mine made *the* comment, I was totally shocked that I *may* have to play such games (which principally/ethically/and whatever else I am not prepared for)

With regards to bringing good stock of medication, I can get 180 days of prescription from Sweden at a time by the doctor's recommendation but the US border folks would allow only 90 days stock. Even though I would get that medication for free, I don't know how CBP folks would treat that extra stock at the border. I checked the website and there are no clear rules. It seems like it pretty much depends on the officer's mood and whim. Frankly, thats not very trustworthy nowadays. I will prefer to shell out from my wallet than wasting Swedish tax payer's money.

@ Joma,
When you say 'creditable coverage', how do you actually get that? I mean, on paper. My GI will give me a letter that will state the condition, medical history in brief. I am not too sure if that will suffice for the insurance purpose. I will be glad if you could elaborate. I won't mind, if you take this discussion through PM.

My apologies if my question sounds stupid but this insurance thing is very new to me and half of the terms are like greek to me..

Thanks a million folks. All of you have been very helpful. I will update once the papers are in and on the situation.

Creditable coverage refers to a period of time in which you had health insurance elsewhere.

In the United States, group health plans may not discriminate regarding pricing and may not refuse to cover someone at all. However, some plans are allowed to have a pre-existing conditions exclusion. Under such an exclusion, any condition that was diagnosed or treated in the past (generally limited to the past 6 months under US HIPAA law) will not be covered for a certain period of time, ranging from 6 to 18 months. A pre-existing condition exclusion is not allowed to exceed 18 months. Additionally, for every month that you had coverage through another insurer (i.e. creditable coverage), they must reduce the maximum waiting period. So if I was on another health plan for 12 months, and the new plan has an 18 month exclusion period, for me, in this situation, the exclusion period would only be 6 months. If I had 18 months of creditable coverage, the pre-existing conditions exclusion would not apply to me at all.

I am uncertain regarding the health insurance system in Sweden, but it may or may not be considered "creditable coverage". If it is, you would get a certificate of creditable coverage from the insurance company who issued your last policy, or if it is an employer based plan, you might get it from that employer.

Additionally, it is worth noting that a waiting period to enroll (i.e. you are not able to enroll until your wife has been employed 60 days at the company), then the waiting period MUST run concurrently with any pre-existing condition exclusion period. So if there was a 12 month exclusion period, and there was a 60 day waiting period, the maximum exclusion period that could be applied (not considering creditable coverage) would be 10 months.

I hope this helps.

Deltaforce-- if you are legally entitled to bring a 90-day supply of Rx med, bring it! Be sure you also have a copy of your prescription to show the U.S Customs agent in case your stash gets looked over. The Customs people are mainly looking to confiscate forbidden items like plants, fruit, etc., or to charge duties for tobacco, wine, whiskey, or luxury goods such as gold jewelry, watches, etc. Don't let them scare you from bringing your essential medicine! Another point: in case you use mesalamine foam retention enemas-- they are not available for purchase in North America. / Old Hat (30 yrs with left-sided UC; presently in remission taking brandname Colazal)

I believe that stress from my job caused my relapse. You're right, life is too short. I'm trying to figure out what to do about work, either disability or Family Medical Leave Act (so I can call in sick more than what the agency allows) or light duty.

Anyway, where in NY are you moving, Delatforce? I live in Western NY. It's not going to be the same as Sweden. I can imagine Sweden is much better and nicer. Taxes here are terrible and the state government is corrupt.

Try this website, it may not have complete info, but it'll be a start for you. It's a local pharmacy website:
http://www.walgreens.com/marketing/library/finddrug/druginfosearch.jsp