Short-term health insurance for someone with unclear national residence

June 11, 2015 2:48 PM

I'm in the middle of a 2-week period during which it is not clear to me in which country I am a resident for the purposes of buying travel medical insurance. I'll be traveling to the US for the last 3 days of that period and will need medical insurance. This seems to require residency in the country from which one is traveling. I'm a 27-year-old person with no known serious medical condition, so I just want something that will cover emergencies. Please hope me.

I am a US citizen and former (as of 31 May 2015) resident. As of that date, I have no US address, because I am in the midst of moving to the UK. As of 20 May 2015, I have an address in the UK, pay rent there etc.; I am not actually entering the UK until 20 June 2015. I have paid the NHS surcharge needed to get my visa, but I have not registered with a GP (since I haven't arrived in the UK yet). Between 31 May and 15 June, I've been staying with my wife in Canada (she lives there, is also moving to the UK). On 16 June, I am traveling to the US for 3 days, and then flying to the UK. My health insurance from my recently-terminated previous US job will not cover me in the US during that time.

How do I obtain 3 days of medical insurance to use on a trip to the US? I've looked at travel insurance; I could plausibly claim to be a US resident (I'm traveling to my mother's place and could use her address), but does intra-US travel insurance exist? I can't seem to get travel insurance as a UK resident, since I haven't registered with a GP. Is there some other way to obtain very-short-term medical insurance inexpensively?

(Is this whole question silly, and I should just spend 3 days uninsured? My trip involves a bit of road travel but no skydiving or anything like that...)

posted by busted_crayons to Health & Fitness (3 answers total)

Best answer: unless you were terminated from your previous job for gross misconduct you should be eligible for COBRA for up to 18 months. you'd have to sign up within 60 days of the end of your previous coverage and you wouldn't be able to insure just three days- you would have to cover payments from the time your work stopped paying your insurance until after your trip. you'd basically be extending your current health insurance until you moved.
posted by noloveforned at 3:07 PM on June 11, 2015

Best answer: And if COBRA will work for you and those three days are in the 60 day sign up period, you don't even need to pay for it unless you need it. With COBRA, medical expenses can be covered retroactively in the 60 day period. Since you left your job at 31 May and need it for June 16 - 19, you'll be in that 60 day period.
posted by ShooBoo at 4:04 PM on June 11, 2015 [8 favorites]

Response by poster: Thanks very much, both of you. COBRA provided sufficient peace of mind, and the universe obliged by supplying me with zero bus crashes/spontaneous human combustion incidents/flesh-eating fungi etc.
posted by busted_crayons at 2:03 PM on June 23, 2015 [1 favorite]