Health Insurance Requirement

Health Insurance Requirement
As an exchange visitor in the United States, you must carry health insurance for yourself and your J-2 dependents for the full duration of your J-1 program. Government regulations stipulate that if you willfully fail to carry health insurance for yourself and your dependents, your J-1 sponsor must terminate your program, and report the termination to the U.S. Department of State (DoS) in Washington.

The Reason for the Requirement - and the Need for Health Insurance
It is dangerous to be in the United States without adequate health insurance. Although in many countries the government bears the expense of health care for its citizens, and sometimes even for visitors, individuals and families in the United States are responsible for these costs themselves. Since a single day of hospitalization and medical treatment can cost thousands of dollars, many hospitals and doctors refuse to treat uninsured patients except in life-threatening emergencies. Most Americans rely on insurance, and you should do the same. Insurance gives you access to better and more timely health care, and provides the only protection against the enormous costs of health care in this country.

How Medical Insurance works
When you purchase health coverage, the money you pay (your premium) is combined with the premiums of others to form a pool of money. That money is then used to pay the medical bills of those participants who need health care. Your coverage remains valid only as long as you continue to pay your insurance premiums.
Once you purchase insurance, the company will provide you with an insurance identification card for use as proof of your coverage when you are seeking health care from a hospital or doctor. The company will also provide written instructions for reporting and documenting medical expenses (filing a claim). The company will evaluate any claim that you file, and make the appropriate payment for coverage under your particular policy. In some cases the company pays the hospital or doctor directly; in others the company reimburses the policyholder after he or she has paid the bills.

Specific J-1 Health Insurance Requirements
Access to adequate health care for exchange visitors and their families is a major concern for DoS and for sponsors. To ensure such access, DoS has made health insurance a requirement for participation in a J-1 program.
Health insurance in the United States is primarily a private industry with a variety of options for coverage and cost. DoS has established minimum requirements for insurance that are designed to protect the exchange visitor and his or her family:
  1. Sponsors shall require each exchange visitor to have insurance in effect which covers the exchange visitor for sickness or accident during the period of time that an exchange visitor participates in the sponsor's exchange visitor program. Minimum coverage shall provide:
    1. Medical benefits of at least $50,000 per accident or illness;
    2. Repatriation of remains in the amount of $7,500;
    3. Expenses associated with the medical evacuation of the exchange visitor to his or her home country in the amount of $10,000; and
    4. A deductible not to exceed $500 per accident or illness.
  2. An insurance policy secured to fulfill the requirements of this section:
    1. May require a waiting period for pre-existing conditions which is reasonable as determined by current industry standards;
    2. May include provision for co-insurance under the terms of which the exchange visitor may be required to pay up to 25% of the covered benefits per accident or illness; and
    3. Shall not unreasonably exclude coverage for perils inherent to the activities of the exchange program in which the exchange visitor participates.
  3. Any policy, plan, or contract secured to fill the above requirements must, at a minimum, be:
    1. Underwritten by an insurance corporation having an A.M. Best rating of "A-" or above, an Insurance Solvency International, Ltd. (ISI) rating of "A-" or above, a Standard & Poor's Claims-paying Ability rating of "A-" or above, a Weiss Research, Inc. rating of B+ or above, or such other rating as the Department of State may from time to time specify; or
    2. Backed by the full faith and credit of the government of the exchange visitor's home country; or
    3. Part of a health benefits program offered on a group basis to employees or enrolled students by a designated sponsor; or
    4. Offered through or underwritten by a federally qualified Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) or eligible Competitive Medical Plan (CMP) as determined by the Health Care Financing Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
  4. Federal, state or local government agencies, state colleges and universities, and public community colleges may, if permitted by law, self-insure any or all of the above-required insurance coverage.
  5. At the request of a non-governmental sponsor of an exchange visitor program, and upon a showing that such sponsor has funds readily available and under its control sufficient to meet the requirements of this section, the Department of State may permit the sponsor to self-insure or to accept full financial responsibility for such requirements.
  6. The DoS, in its sole discretion, may condition its approval of self-insurance or the acceptance of full financial responsibility by the non-governmental sponsor by requiring such sponsor to secure a payment bond in favor of the Department of State guaranteeing the sponsor's obligations hereunder.
  7. An accompanying spouse or dependent of an exchange visitor is required to be covered by insurance in the same amounts as the exchange visitor . Sponsors shall inform exchange visitors of this requirement, in writing, in advance of the exchange visitor's arrival in the United States.
  8. An exchange visitor who willfully fails to maintain the insurance coverage set forth above while a participant in an exchange visitor program or who makes a material misrepresentation to the sponsor concerning such coverage shall be deemed to be in violation of these regulations and shall be subject to termination as a participant.
  9. A sponsor shall terminate an exchange visitor's participation in its program if the sponsor determines that the exchange visitor or any accompanying spouse or dependent willfully fails to remain in compliance with this section.

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