To take my child to America for medical treatment

[LoveAfternoonTea]

Posting for traffic. DC has a severely debilitating degenerative disease which has no treatment options. We have a chance to enroll on a clinical trial in America for a new drug which offers hope of significant improvement, and could transform all our futures. We will only be accepted if we can find health insurance for the 13 months we’d be there. Care resulting from the trial is covered by the drug company, but other care is not. It is very difficult to find such insurance. Has anyone taken a child to America for medical treatment? Where did you find travel/health insurance? Please help, having to pass up this opportunity would be devastating.

didn't want to read and run so will try and make some sensible suggestions. first off, have a word with the society or organisation that deals with your childs disease. they are usually a brilliant resource for this sort of thing. go back to the hospital offering the trial and ask them if anyone else is travelling from abroad so that you can make contact with them and find out who they are insuring with. be really clear now what you need this insurance to cover. write it down and be very specific. what sort of other care might be needed? are you talking for example, if he breaks his leg and needs this?

I would also start talking to some insurance brokers and I would target those that deal with difficult/unusual cases.

FWIW my first thought was that all insurance companies usually wont cover pre-existing conditions anyway so what you need is a general one year health insurance for your DH and whichever family member is staying out there with them.

Your best bet would be to look into some of the charity hospitals and to see if they can help you find the needed resources. Talk to those running the trial and ask if they have had patients in similar situations. Also if the trial will be affiliated with a hospital there should be social services resources within the hospital that may be able to help guide you.

You can also try healthcare.gov, but I would call instead of using the website. You will likely have to establish some sort of residency before getting insurance, but establishing that residency will be a life event that will allow you to sign up for insurance outside of open enrollment.

It may be useful speaking to a specialist health travel firm - we use ""insure with ""to establish if they would be able to cover ? You definitely need to speak in person or maybe go to a broker and see what they can find?

I hope you get it sorted and can participate in the trial x