My non-US girlfriend has various prescriptions to help her disorder. If she moves to the US with me (presumably to tie the knot), what is the process for her to get her prescriptions here?
What I have so far: she needs to bring her records (in English), meet a US doctor, discuss her records and discuss continuing prescriptions, etc. Pain in the butt, takes time, but we get there. Meanwhile she can bring a stash of prescriptions so long as it isn’t too many and they’re FDA approved (I believe they all are though dosages may differ).
Could someone tell me what I’ve missed, if there’s more to it, etc.?
Usually you can bring 3 months of meds (with doctors letter and in original packaging) as the ‘usual supply’ to tide you over.
She will need health insurance first. Assuming she isn’t going straight into a job with insurance, she might have to start with a few months on something like Cigna’s global cover (it’s expensive but means no concerns about not having immediate regular insurance) or you’ll need for figure out how to get her onto your insurance as soon as possible.
Yes she’ll need to see a doctor, and depending on her condition and what she’s already prescribed she may have to fight to actually get the same meds again. US insurers can be real assholes about what they’ll ‘let’ you have regardless of what your doctor says. She may be in for a nasty shock on cost, too. I have a medication that cost me $6US a month in my home country and $180US in the US despite insurance. You can start to figure out what her costs might be using price checks on goodrx etc.
If she is taking any brand medications, her insurance will want to switch her to generics. I’d she has allergies or any reactions to any generics she will need to tell her doctor that so they can put DAW on the prescription. Brands will cost more than generic and may need prior authorization from the insurance company.
Lovely response! Super helpful! Yeah I read and looked up her meds previously and believe them all to be FDA approved and such. So theoretically, she should be able to bring her stash across the border.
It’s hard to say what the future will be like as this is currently a preparatory hypothetical (we haven’t officially tied the knot). But I imagine what would happen is we’d get married, she’d apply for her green card, get an SSN, and that would allow her to be on my plan. However, there’s a waiting period of 1-2 years where her status as an immigrant will be “pending.” In which case, I believe she’d have to use immigrant/visitor insurance like the one you mentioned. I don’t suppose these policies are known for being all that great for their coverage on primary care and/or psychiatry and/or getting your meds from the pharmacy. I already knew her prescriptions would be ridiculously priced here. Fortunately, I think she can switch to any generic brands. I’ve no doubt this is going to be an expensive pill to swallow (ba dum psh).