Need advice on bringing MIL into US & health insurance

[Anonymous]

I will try to make this short. My MIL is divorced, single, an only child of only children, and her only children live in the US, so she has no partner, siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles, etc. She is in her mid 60s and recently has rapidly deteriorating health. She lives in the EU in a country with socialized medicine, where health care is supposed to be decent, but she isn't getting any better, only worse and it is like that show mystery diagnosis. No doctor can seem to pinpoint the problem, she's in and out of hospitals, she's tested, prodded, poked, given new drugs, then shuffled to the next doctor and it all starts again. If she lived here, we would be going with her to the doctor, advocating for her, etc., but because there is an ocean between us there really isn't anyway with any consistency to make sure she's getting the care she needs, DH has made several week long trips, but it isn't helping. She is able to live independently, but i think she just has shitty doctors in a shitty system and just doesn't speak up. I want her to get better.

SOOOOO we are considering applying for a I30 visa to bring a parent of a US citizen into the US to live, but the issue is how do we get her health insurance. We don't want to bring her here and have her be uninsured, but I don't think she wants to live with us, but perhaps live in an apartment near us so she can still keep some independence. We have spoken with an immigration lawyer who said we needed her to live with us and claim her as a dependent and get her on our insurance, but I wanted to know if anyone has some other suggestion??? HELP!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I will try to make this short. My MIL is divorced, single, an only child of only children, and her only children live in the US, so she has no partner, siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles, etc. She is in her mid 60s and recently has rapidly deteriorating health. She lives in the EU in a country with socialized medicine, where health care is supposed to be decent, but she isn't getting any better, only worse and it is like that show mystery diagnosis. No doctor can seem to pinpoint the problem, she's in and out of hospitals, she's tested, prodded, poked, given new drugs, then shuffled to the next doctor and it all starts again. If she lived here, we would be going with her to the doctor, advocating for her, etc., but because there is an ocean between us there really isn't anyway with any consistency to make sure she's getting the care she needs, DH has made several week long trips, but it isn't helping. She is able to live independently, but i think she just has shitty doctors in a shitty system and just doesn't speak up. I want her to get better.

SOOOOO we are considering applying for a I30 visa to bring a parent of a US citizen into the US to live, but the issue is how do we get her health insurance. We don't want to bring her here and have her be uninsured, but I don't think she wants to live with us, but perhaps live in an apartment near us so she can still keep some independence. We have spoken with an immigration lawyer who said we needed her to live with us and claim her as a dependent and get her on our insurance, but I wanted to know if anyone has some other suggestion??? HELP!

You cannot get advice on insurance from someone in another state as the laws and policies are state specific. And your health insurance might not have a provision for someone her age being added on.

I know for a fact that some legal immigrants with little to no income qualify for Medicaid. But again, since states are involved in Medicaid I am not certain that will be the case where you are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I know for a fact that some legal immigrants with little to no income qualify for Medicaid. But again, since states are involved in Medicaid I am not certain that will be the case where you are.

Technically, family immigration requires an affidavit of support that is supposed to deter new immigrants from applying for federal benefits. States, counties, and cities often have their own plans for people without income regardless of their immigration status. Research those in your area. There is also emergency Medicaid you MIL can be eligible for, but I'm not sure how it works and whether it applies to chronic conditions. From what I understand, ACA plans are available, but your MIL won't be eligible to subsidies (i.e. federal benefit).

That being said, I hear conflicting stories about eligibilities all the time, so you won't know until you actually start looking. Good luck! I know it's a tough one.