Do you need an address to get short term health ins?

[foxtimothyj]

Has anyone been through a similar situation..
Wife and I are going to pack everything up and ditch our apt when the lease ends. We are leaving our jobs and will try to find something cheaper than COBRA. So until we are done, we have no official address... Is this a requirement in order to get Short term health ins? Should we apply under our current address (Virginia) , or under parents address (Vermont) where we will be fowarding our mail etc?
Any thoughts on how this will effect coverage.. We livein Va now, Vt will be "home" during our time on the trail..

[Montana Mac]

If you have a driver license what address are you using for that? It might make life easier if your address matched your "official" id. Just my .02

[Walkintom]

I would look at the costs and benefits in both states and apply in the one that will give you the most bang for your buck. Then, if getting insurance in the state you are leaving, notify them of the new address.

[Old Hillwalker]

When I sold my home a mile from the AT in NH to "go on the road" last spring, I joined a mailing service in South Dakota, "Americas Mailbox". I registered my vehicles through them and got my drivers license in SD. SD has a legal residence status called "Nomad". You can be a legal resident of SD, but not actually live there. SD has no income tax, nor does it require vehicle inspections. The only time you have to actually be in SD is for one day at which time you get your drivers license. After that, all renewals are done by mail using Americas Mailbox.

I use the internet to have my mail forwarded to anyplace at any schedule I desire.

I spent the winter on the beach, and will be travelling in Europe for part of the summer, then back out west for the balance of the summer. Next winter is undecided so far.

Life is good!

[fiddlehead]

When I sold my home a mile from the AT in NH to "go on the road" last spring, I joined a mailing service in South Dakota, "Americas Mailbox". I registered my vehicles through them and got my drivers license in SD. SD has a legal residence status called "Nomad". You can be a legal resident of SD, but not actually live there. SD has no income tax, nor does it require vehicle inspections. The only time you have to actually be in SD is for one day at which time you get your drivers license. After that, all renewals are done by mail using Americas Mailbox.

I use the internet to have my mail forwarded to anyplace at any schedule I desire.

I spent the winter on the beach, and will be travelling in Europe for part of the summer, then back out west for the balance of the summer. Next winter is undecided so far.

Life is good!

Thanks a lot for that! That is a great thing to know about.
I thought Montana was the coolest state in that no inspection or car insurance needed. But, then i got stopped in OR and they busted me for no insurance anyway. Cost me an arm and a leg on that one.
By the way, if you are in Europe and want to buy a car (no insurance or residency necessary) go to Holland. They are the free-est country in the world i think.

[bronconite]

In addition to Hillwalker's excellent information, you may find this usefull.

http://cheaprvliving.com/Communications.html

This whole site is quite interesting.

[Amanita]

Don't know if it will affect your decision, but Vermont has some funky stuff going on with healthcare. Current Governor wants to make the whole state single payer, and is pushing a bill right now that would serve as a "first step" towards that goal. I do not know when it would apply or how it would work.

Currently VT has "Catamount Health Care" for residents of VT who cannot get insurance through work or a spouse. It's a state run program that covers most Doctors in VT, I don't know how accepted it is out of state.

VT also has requirements that some other states do not, such as "mental health parody." While very nice when you need to use it, this does drive up the cost for VT policies.

[Old Hillwalker]

Has anyone been through a similar situation..
Wife and I are going to pack everything up and ditch our apt when the lease ends. We are leaving our jobs and will try to find something cheaper than COBRA. So until we are done, we have no official address... Is this a requirement in order to get Short term health ins? Should we apply under our current address (Virginia) , or under parents address (Vermont) where we will be fowarding our mail etc?
Any thoughts on how this will effect coverage.. We livein Va now, Vt will be "home" during our time on the trail..

I meant to say this originally but got distracted. Go on line and look up "Full Time RV living". There are hundreds of people out there in much the same situation.

[Toolshed]

I thought for a moment you could qualify under PPACA based on your age, but there are some limiting factors. It might be better for you to simply use your parents address, or quite frankly, start with your current address and then change it once things are finalized. Where are you forwarding your mail?
Also do you understand the ramifications of COBRA? You have 60 days with complete retro-activity to decide whether to take it. meaning that on day 59 after your "employer contributed" coverage lapses you are injured or ill, you can still accept coverage at your employers rate, but it is retro to the effective period of which your employer ceased to cover your premiums, meaning you have to cover 59 days worth of premium.. It is definitely worth a gamble. (Note you should also check with your employer or the carrier as to when the "employer-contributed coverage" ceases and COBRA begins. With some employers it is the day you walk out the door, others cover you til the end of your pay period, still others until the end of the month and there are even some who cover until the end of a calendar quarter. This is important to know.
In the meantime if you find something cheaper - such as a simple traditional indemnity plan, which essentially covers major medical, (but no bells and whistles), at 80/20 or 75/25 after a $1K or $2K deductible period, you should be good to go.
I wouldn't mention you are backpacking the trail or anything like that. Some people feel like they have to talk and have to impress others with grandiose plans. This happens and the underwriter might look at it as an opportunity to increase your rating from community to experience and land you in a class like roofing or something far more hazardous (and your premiums will skyrocket, and of course, you have now created a record of being in a hazardous career/hobby.)

[ScrapIron]

At your age, you probably don't even need health insurance if you are in good shape and don't have any mental health issues. Just buy a term life policy and something to cover a catastrophic injury. Otherwise, just pay cash when you need to see the doc.
Oh yea, just do the SD thing. Sounds smart.

[Toolshed]

At your age, you probably don't even need health insurance if you are in good shape and don't have any mental health issues. Just buy a term life policy and something to cover a catastrophic injury. Otherwise, just pay cash when you need to see the doc.
Oh yea, just do the SD thing. Sounds smart.

but "buy...something to cover a catastrophic injury" is buying Insurance.

[88BlueGT]

You could always just make your life easy and call...

[ScrapIron]

but "buy...something to cover a catastrophic injury" is buying Insurance.

Perhaps I should have elaborated a bit more in the post. Think I missed my own point.

[Toolshed]

Perhaps I should have elaborated a bit more in the post. Think I missed my own point.

No Worries (though I scratched my head for a moment!!!)

[Panzer1]

I used to work for a company that sold health insurance and the computer system would reject an application if it had a blank address or an address that was not in the post office database of valid addresses. That was 10 years ago though.

Panzer

[GregoryK]

Could one use a P.O. box for their home address for insurance reasons or do they not accept P.O. boxes? I never knew about the South Dakota law and America's Mailbox. I usually use my parents address so then I can call them and have them forward my mail to a checkpoint.