SANTA CLARA, CALIF. (October 7, 2019) -- The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that a proclamation has been issued by the Trump Administration requiring that immigrant visa applicants prove they can pay for health care within 30 days of entering the country or demonstrate they can pay for medical treatment as a condition of eligibility for a green card in the U.S. Plans that are subsidized under the Affordable Care Act would not count as an eligible form of health care as stated by the proclamation, and applicants would be ineligible to apply for other subsidized care such as Medicaid. The new requirement is set to take effect on Nov. 3 and would not apply to refugees, asylum seekers or non-citizen children of U.S. citizens.
As more and more countries struggle to pay for their citizens healthcare while bearing the burden of unpaid medical bills incurred by foreign travelers and immigrants, we can expect other countries to take similar action, says Rajeev Shrivastava, CEO and founder of VisitorsCoverage, a Silicon Valley insurtech company. Shrivastava founded his company to assist immigrants and to offer affordable visitors travel medical insurance while in the United States. Visitors' insurance is not well-known to many U.S. citizens, but it is to foreigners visiting the U.S., a country which does not have universal health care and has high medical treatment costs.
Visitors insurance has long been a solution to providing temporary health insurance for non-U.S. citizens entering the U.S. on various types of visas, Shrivastava notes. The coverage is good for both immigrant and non-immigrant visas for individuals such as green card holders and expats.
Visitors insurance can provide short-term travel medical insurance for up to a year for those in the immigration pipeline. This type of coverage is a great way to protect immigrants from the expensive cost of healthcare in the U.S., provide peace of mind to the insured and not leave healthcare providers with the burden of unpaid bills.
Countries such as Thailand and New Caledonia have implemented some level of mandatory travel medical insurance as they feel the fiscal impact of millions of dollars of unpaid medical treatments, Shrivastava continues. Requiring a minimum amount of travel medical coverage such as 30,000 in coverage to enter the 26 Schengen visa countries will likely be replicated in 2020 across the globe. For immigrants in the visa application process in the U.S., visitors insurance may become an affordable and popular solution.
About VisitorsCoverage Inc.:
An insurtech company located in the heart of Silicon Valley, VisitorsCoverage Inc. is disrupting the global travel insurance industry by leveraging technology to redefine the way travelers purchase and manage travel insurance.