To Mr Narender; Inability to pay hospital bills

[taco]

Dear Mr Narender;
Let us say a newly immigrated senior citizen
covered by the visitor type plan is hospitalized due to a pre-existing condition that is not covered by the plan.
*What will happen if neither the patient nor the child sponsor is able to pay the *****nomical bills?
*Is there a legal action against the child sponsor because he/she filed the
affidavit of support? What is the reality in such a situation?
*What happens to the patient? Is he/she given full treatment or not?

[insubuy]

1 & 2. Please read https://https://www.immihelp.comhttp...it-of-support/

Before they could immigrate to US, you must have provided I-864, Affidavit of Support form. That is a legally binding form where you agree to take care of all their financial liabilities until they work in US for 10 years or become US citizen.

Therefore, they could come after you and your assets. You may have to sell your house, deplete bank balance and potentially file bankruptcy. They will definitely demand money.

3. This can vary.

All hospitals in US are required to provide stabilizing treatment in an emergency situation, whether the person has money or not, insurance or not, legal or not. However, once the person is stable, they are not required to provide any further treatment to him/her unless you can pay.

And immigrated person will have social security number. Bills will go in to collection and they will come after you for collecting money.

And for those on visitors visa, if some unsuspecting hospital does not ask the US resident to sign as second guarantor in case insurance does not pay, it may be possible to get away.

However, after 1 experience, more and more hospitals are getting smart and many ask the US resident to become second guarantor. And if the insurance does not pay, they will go after the US resident (usually son, daughter etc.) to collect money. I have personally seen this happening several times and talked to billing personnels in several hospitals and they said that is their policy after prior bad experience.

And this problem gets aggrevated by people buying insurance from foreign companies where the claims are handled overseas, many times not paid, many times paid after long delay such as 1 year.
Additionally, many people buy fixed coverage plans which are less expensive but provide less coverage. And hospitals don't know all the fixed/comprehensive etc. And they assume that these companies are not paying them enough. (Well, they are paying whatever they promised to pay and doing nothing wrong.) Therefore, always buy comprehensive coverage plans.

I hope this answers your questions. If you have any further questions, please feel free to post them here or call us at 1-866-INSU-BUY

[taco]

Thanks Mr Narendra.
*Is there any possiblity that an immigrant senior citizen can get a private plan covering pre-existing conditions somewhere down the line as a PR?
*Any other way to fully cover one's newly immigrated parents?
(like getting them employment in a family business?)

[insubuy]

1. Please read https://www.insubuy.com/new-immigrant-insurance/-plans/

2. That may be a possibility. They must be on a payroll (employed in the company). And most group insurance plans require for workers to be full time employees to provide the coverage.
However, please note that for old age parents, the premiums are going to be very high, and unless yours is a large company, if you have big claim in past, your renewal rates going to be very high. Finally, insurance companies are paying from what they are collecting minus their expenses, commissions, profits etc.

Unfortunately, there is no good solution available to the people who are entering the system very late in their life.
It is same problem for everyone, including my relatives.