Long term visa health insurance

You can try a visa insurance aggregator. I'm working for *** Insurance and we're only presenting plans that have been battle tested for visa applications on the French market and offer a 100% refund if the visa isn't accepted because of the health insurance policy (and hint => never happened in the past couple of years).

I use acs, acs-ami

I found them very reasonable and very easy to deal with. |

The above should have said used...

yes we have acs on the aggregator too ;-)

@fabienffi

Thank you.  I believe we communicated a year ago when I was applying for my original one year travel visa.  I did buy a policy with United Healthcare that was affordable (about 3k for one year) but that expires 28 April and is not renewable.  I am applying for another one year visa renewal to begin 1 May 2023. 

ACS quote today only gave a $8,400. maximum coverage for $850 fee for one year.

Cigna wants minimum $517 per month for one million $ coverage (only $100,000. required).

Alliance price for one year coverage is $9561.  with one million $ coverage.

Grateful if you could offer some better news.

Bonne journée-

James

See above

ACS do have plans that are compatible but they are much more expensive tha. $850 per annum. Our best seller is $1600 per year for someone who is 50 years old

If you can confirm your age I’ll confirm the exact premium 😉

I use ACS very reasonable and and accepted for long stay Visa. Cost €761 for year.

Beware cavanaghlorraine the offer you are referring to is probably the "Globe Traveller" one from the ACS website and it's a travel insurance policy (schengen plan) which is not compatible for long term visas (unless you're lucky). If you'd like to have an idea of what a PHI is worth there are other aggregators like brokerfish for exemple.

Marianne with Fab French Insurance contacted me and found a premium that is affordable and meets all the requirements.  Merci beaucoup for getting us together. She responds very quickly and we are in the process of finalizing the contract.  I won’t do the final payment step until I know I passed the OFII required medical physical with one of their appointed doctors.

After doing much research of companies offering private medical insurance for long-term visa requirements, I chose Fab French Insurance. They offered the best rates of all the companies I contacted and their customer care is outstanding.

My sales rep was Marianne and she was delightful to work with and very fast to respond to my inquiries—usually the same day.  Dorine is also an associate that works with Marianne and was very fast in providing the final insurance documents of the coverage. I received  the insurance documents to submit for my visa renewal within 24 hours of payment to Fab French Insurance.  I also think it is worth mentioning that they do not use high pressure sales tactics to get you to sign with their company.  I also found quotes from other companies to be two or three times higher.  And I also want to mention that FFI offers the $100,000 policy which meets the visa requirements,  whereas some other companies only offer a one million dollar policy at a much higher price. 

I hope this information helps others save time from shopping around for visa medical insurance coverage.  I am very meticulous when shopping for items like this and I feel confident that I made the correct choice.

Bonne journée—

James

Could somebody provide a reference to the $100K policy requirement?

Getting a one year France visitor visa has only required the equivalent of insurance necessary for a Schengen visa, or 30K € with repatriation coverage.

Second, what's this about a visa "renewal"? When applying for a one year France visitor visa, one should answer the question about how long you are staying with the option "more than one year." What you renew the is NOT the visa, but the temporary residency permit that goes along with it.

Third, after three continuous months legally in France, one is on the French health system and can activate reimbursements by applying at the local medical insurance office (CPAM).

For comprehensive medical insurance with a high reimbursement rate, a plan is offered by AARO (Association of Americans Resident Overseas. It is far less costly than Cigna (which is pretty much only hospital insurance unless you add outpatient that gives very limited coverage for a high additional cost).

@AARO health Hi, you can use our services and see the premiums directly online => Fab French Insurance.com

Could somebody provide a reference to the $100K policy requirement? => All our plans meet this requirement.

Getting a one year France visitor visa has only required the equivalent of insurance necessary for a Schengen visa, or 30K € with repatriation coverage. => Unfortunately not, Schengen insurance policy will be automatically rejected at the visa center, whatever this is VFS or TLS. You need a full private medical insurance to fit the bill.

Second, what's this about a visa "renewal"? When applying for a one year France visitor visa, one should answer the question about how long you are staying with the option "more than one year." What you renew the is NOT the visa, but the temporary residency permit that goes along with it. => Some people don't know in advance OR they don't manage to secure their "carte de séjour" quickly enough so they'll need to renew their visa although technically a long term visa is also a carte de séjour as VLS-TS stands for "Visa Long Stay valant Titre de Séjour".

Third, after three continuous months legally in France, one is on the French health system and can activate reimbursements by applying at the local medical insurance office (CPAM). => Not true in real life, this is only a theoretical delay, but in real life you can only start the CPAM application process after 3 months and being accepted into it can take another 3 months (but more often 6).

For comprehensive medical insurance with a high reimbursement rate, a plan is offered by AARO (Association of Americans Resident Overseas. It is far less costly than Cigna (which is pretty much only hospital insurance unless you add outpatient that gives very limited coverage for a high additional cost). => Outpatient benefit is mandatory as part of the application process as well but happy to have a chat if you'd like to understand the visa application better?

I have no idea about the regulations but I do know that everybody has the right for basice medical insurance by the government ... you might contact CPAM for further information ...

@hapyml2004 I am puzzled by people spending so much money. First of all, doctors and hospitals charge rates that are much lower than co-pays in the US, even without insurance. But yes you need insurance to get a 6-12 month visa. I have used AXA Schengen ([link moderated] several times. It is not the most amount of coverage, but large amounts of coverage are not necessary given the general cost of medical care in Europe. The consulates accept it for visa applications. The rate right now is €328 PER YEAR. I was injured a few years ago while on a 1 year visa in France. Reimbursement was slow but it was paid. What they don't tell you clearly is that you must go to an ER to get initial treatment

@blehrer I can guarantee you were lucky as I’ve seen dozens of applications rejected with Schengen policies. We are selling at least 2 or 3 policies each week to people that tried to use a Schengen plan and got denied so this is not a myth

> Could somebody provide a reference to the $100K policy requirement? => All our plans meet this requirement.

What I was asking for is evidence of a change from the 30K coverage requirement to $100K. When did this happen, where is it written (and why would it be in $)?

> => Some people don't know in advance

It doesn't matter. There is a question that asks your planned length of stay: 3-6, 6-12 or more than 12 months> You must say more than 12 months or the visa is not renewable and you start over. Saying more than 12 months does not give the right to stay more than a year; it gives the right to renew.

> OR they don't manage to secure their "carte de séjour" quickly enough

Yes, it IS the carte, by definition, but it isn't valid until the step with OFII within 3 months of arrival.

>. => Not true in real life, this is only a theoretical delay, but in real life you can only start the CPAM application process after 3 months and being accepted into it can take another 3 months (but more often 6).

You are right that you can only apply after 3 months' uninterrupted presence and the procedure can take a long time. But the date of effect is the day you apply and medical bills can be saved for reimbursement later. Anyway, to get the visa in the first place you need to be covered for the whole year. (It's a logical contradiction because your insurance co won't refund from when you get on the national system.

> => Outpatient benefit is mandatory as part of the application process as well but happy to have a chat if you'd like to understand the visa application better?

I'm just saying that Cigna's insurance offers outpatient and repatriation as options.

Cheers

-@fabienffi

@blehrer I can guarantee you were lucky as I’ve seen dozens of applications rejected with Schengen policies. We are selling at least 2 or 3 policies each week to people that tried to use a Schengen plan and got denied so this is not a myth
-@fabienffi

It is definitely vague in the instructions for the visa process, which mention 30K for visits <90 days and seem to give no objective guidance for >90 days -- other than evacuation for the entire period of stay.

The second problem is that of selling policies to people in the US without being licensed with the insurance department in each state where such sales might be made (blue skies laws).

BTW, people who don't know the trick of saying their stay is > 1 yr (which makes them feel as if declaring intent to overstay) are likely to receive a VLS-T instead of TS, and that's what limits the renewal.

@AARO health What I was asking for is evidence of a change from the 30K coverage requirement to $100K. When did this happen, where is it written (and why would it be in $)?

There is no evidence of this indeed but the VLS center in London does apply that rule, this is the perfect example of the difference between theoretical requirement and the reality on the field

There is no evidence of this indeed but the VLS center in London does apply that rule, this is the perfect example of the difference between theoretical requirement and the reality on the field
-@fabienffi

Things are clearer. I did this before the French privatised the process (the visits were still to a consulate) and the private company made up  its own rules (and was error-prone).

My recollection was that Allianz had an annual travel policy including $50,000 medical and evacuation for $108 [sic].

@fabienffi I succeeded twice and I expect to succeed again. AXA, which is one of the largest insurance companies in the world, would not sell the product if it were not what they say it is. The EU wold punish them for it.  I am afraid your message sounds more like the lies that American health insurance companies constantly tell us, particularly seniors. I get daily calls telling me that Medicare, which i find to be the best helath coverage possible in the US, is bad coverage and that I should hand over $4000 every year to them for a product that does next to nothing.

@blehrer Sorry you're taking it this way, we've processed more than a thousand visa applications and can confirm what we've seen on the ground. If you've experienced something different and it's in your favour then good for you but I would not encourage others to do the same. As to AXA, they are not advertising "visa compliant" policies they are merely selling you whatever you ask them to so they have no liability in that regard. Actually we're also working with them and they do have long term visa compatible plans, just not the Schengen one (although it is compatible for short term visas).

@fabienffi I I get daily calls telling me that Medicare, which i find to be the best helath coverage possible in the US, is bad coverage and that I should hand over $4000 every year to them for a product that does next to nothing.
-@blehrer

It's really hard to know what you're talking about. Who would be calling "daily" to sell a Medicare alternative? It's not even the period of the year for changing Medicare options. And for Medicare you have to be 65 and at that age there is no such thing as medical insurance for $4000.

Im finding this  discussion very helpful as we are applying for our long stay visa. Can someone confirm whether you still need the one year of cover with a working/entrepreneur visa? i understand you will be paying into and able to access the social secutie system straight away?