• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Type 1 Moving Country

Moving from the UK to the USA?

  • Accomplished

    Votes: 1 100.0%

  • Unaccomplished

    Votes: 1 100.0%
  • Total voters
    1
E

ES3

Member
Messages
13
Wanting to move to the USA to work for 6 - 12 months?

Hello, my name is Egan, I'm 21 years old & I live in the UK. I was wondering if anybody knew anything or could recommend anything because I'm looking at working in the United States for about 6 months, I wasn't sure where to start, questions I have but can't seem to find anywhere..

Medical insurance for living there for a while (6 months) or even If places cover T1D in the US for being on a work VISA
How I would handle being on a new type of insulin in the US
Do i just stockpile my prescription in the UK & take it with me

The sort of things that I will need to know to be able to live abroad in the US for 6 months, If anyone has been able to do this or knows anyone that has been able to accomplish this & is able to share any tips then it would be very much appreciated?

Thank you.
 
I'm abroad at the moment from the uk too. Personally as a relatively newly diagnosed t1 I wasnt willing to risk changing insulin. So I've bought mine over from england
 
Mad76 said:
I'm abroad at the moment from the uk too. Personally as a relatively newly diagnosed t1 I wasnt willing to risk changing insulin. So I've bought mine over from england
Click to expand...
Ahhh okay, are you working over there if you don't mind me asking?
 
Hello I think you’ll have to double check with your team. NHS, correct me if I’m wrong, won’t give you a year supply of insulin etc or something to that effect. Anything can go wrong with your insulin, so you’ll need to get insurance in place ASAP. When you say a new type of insulin, is it Fiasp? Tresiba? They have it there but it’s very expensive for branded insulin with/without insurance.
 
MeiChanski said:
correct me if I’m wrong, won’t give you a year supply of insulin etc or something to that effect.
Click to expand...
This is correct, if you go abroad for more than 3 months they expect you to sort out a doctor/prescription wherever you're going and your doctor is supposed to decline any prescriptions that would cover you after the first 3 months.
 
MeiChanski said:
Hello I think you’ll have to double check with your team. NHS, correct me if I’m wrong, won’t give you a year supply of insulin etc or something to that effect. Anything can go wrong with your insulin, so you’ll need to get insurance in place ASAP. When you say a new type of insulin, is it Fiasp? Tresiba? They have it there but it’s very expensive for branded insulin with/without insurance.
Click to expand...
Yeah so at the minute in the UK I am on Fiasp & the Levemir at night, just not sure where to find insurance to cover that because I know how expensive it is in the US but thank you :)
 
Rokaab said:
This is correct, if you go abroad for more than 3 months they expect you to sort out a doctor/prescription wherever you're going and your doctor is supposed to decline any prescriptions that would cover you after the first 3 months.
Click to expand...
Ahhh I see. thank you!
 
ES3 said:
Yeah so at the minute in the UK I am on Fiasp & the Levemir at night, just not sure where to find insurance to cover that because I know how expensive it is in the US but thank you :)
Click to expand...

You’ll have to do some research, because in the US, insurance companies can change the insulin that you use to another brand that they will cover. They won’t always cover Fiasp and levemir.
 
MeiChanski said:
You’ll have to do some research, because in the US, insurance companies can change the insulin that you use to another brand that they will cover. They won’t always cover Fiasp and levemir.
Click to expand...
I see, well thats new info to me so thats great thank you for the help! :)
 
ES3 said:
I see, well thats new info to me so thats great thank you for the help! :)
Click to expand...

Just be prepared because they can always change their formulary. Like you can go from Fiasp and levemir to humalog and Tresiba or novolog (novorapid) and lantus. I wish you the best of luck, I know a lot of type 1s go to Canada to buy insulin because it’s expensive or their insurance won’t cover their preferred insulin etc.
 
My husband and I looked into moving to the USA for his job, it wasn't going to be a permanent move but perhaps for a couple of years. We did some research and basically found it was going to be prohibitively expensive, even with workplace insurance, the costs for reasonably healthy people that we found was insane, so adding a pump, insulin, test strips etc was a no-go for us
 
sleepster said:
My husband and I looked into moving to the USA for his job, it wasn't going to be a permanent move but perhaps for a couple of years. We did some research and basically found it was going to be prohibitively expensive, even with workplace insurance, the costs for reasonably healthy people that we found was insane, so adding a pump, insulin, test strips etc was a no-go for us
Click to expand...
Hmm yeah, was thinking that it would be ridiculous price. Well until the prices change in the US I guess it'll be a no go
 
sleepster said:
My husband and I looked into moving to the USA for his job, it wasn't going to be a permanent move but perhaps for a couple of years. We did some research and basically found it was going to be prohibitively expensive, even with workplace insurance, the costs for reasonably healthy people that we found was insane, so adding a pump, insulin, test strips etc was a no-go for us
Click to expand...
Where did you find the prices & like insurances quotes if you used any? If you don't mind me asking? Thank you
 
ES3 said:
Wanting to move to the USA to work for 6 - 12 months?
Click to expand...
I wonder how long it will be before the US bans travel from the UK, as they have done with a travel ban from European countries due to the corona virus..
 
ES3 said:
Where did you find the prices & like insurances quotes if you used any? If you don't mind me asking? Thank you
Click to expand...
It was a couple of years ago when we were looking into it, I visited a couple of forums where ex-pats were sharing information with people thinking about moving to the US, so none were diabetes-specific and were just sharing how much their monthly copays were for doctors or hospital visits (IIRC it was in the low thousands of dollars per month for couples without pre-existing conditions), we never got as far as specific insurance providers as it wouldn't have been a job transfer and companies don't tend to share specifics with prospective employees. The amounts people were paying for their copays put us off sufficiently :hilarious: I know from various sources over the years that insurance providers can be very restrictive in what they will let you have for your diabetes, for example not letting you have as many test strips as you might need or only letting you have a certain type of insulin.
Sorry if that's not very helpful, you might be better off seeing if there's a US diabetes forum to see if you can get an idea of costs, as I said it was a couple of years ago when we were looking so I can't provide any useful specific information
 
Back
Top