You are uninsured the moment you land. Nothing carries over from India, and there is no grace period. Two purchases cover you. The first is a visitor plan, bought before you fly. The second is a Covered California plan, picked in your arrival month. Type your move date into Section A below and we’ll work out your deadlines.
we typed our own move dates into this one
Every number in this file traces to a Covered California, CMS or CHCF page listed at the bottom. Premiums and penalty figures are as of August 2026.
WHAT IS TRUE THE DAY YOU LANDAUG 2026
$1,500+
an uninsured ER visit, before any scans
None
grace period; nothing carries over from India
60 days
to enroll, counted from your move date
These numbers are why this file exists, not a reason to panic. Two purchases, made on time, cover all three.
THE 60-DAY WINDOW
Moving to California counts as a qualifying life event, which opens a special window to enroll: 60 days, counted from the move date you type into the application. Coverage starts on the 1st of the month after you pick a plan, so enrolling in your arrival month is what keeps your uninsured gap short. Miss the window and there is no marketplace plan until open enrollment, which runs 1 November to 31 January for a 1 January start. California also fines you for the gap: $950 per adult for 2025, though gaps of three months or less are exempt. Visitor plans do not count as coverage.
SECTION A — THE 60-DAY CLOCKENTER YOUR MOVE DATE
YOUR MOVE DATE
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Enter your move date on the application exactly as you type it here. The system counts your 60 days from that date. The plan is not active until your first premium payment clears at checkout.
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Some good news before the details: eligibility is simpler than you might fear. If you are in the US lawfully on a visa, meaning H-1B, O-1, E-2 and their dependents, you can buy these plans from day one, with no waiting period. You can apply while your Social Security number is still in process. Subsidies only ask that you agree to file a US tax return for the year.
The bridge plan
Between wheels-down and the 1st of the month when marketplace coverage starts, a visitor plan is what stands between you and that $1,500 ER bill. You can buy one from India before you fly. There is no enrollment window, and you can renew it in increments if things slip.
THE PLANWHAT 30 DAYS COSTSKEEP IN MIND
Atlas America ↗The standard visitor plan◄ THE DEFAULT PICK~$80–95At a $100k to $250k cap. It covers sudden flare-ups of conditions you already have, but only sudden ones, on the UnitedHealthcare PPO network.
Insubuy ↗A comparison site, not a plan~$50–95A storefront that compares many insurers, so judge the underlying plan rather than the site. The cheap tiers cap what they pay per service, and those caps fall apart in a real ER visit.
INF Elite X ↗For a chronic conditionPricierThe rare plan that fully covers conditions you already have, not just sudden flare-ups. Worth the premium if you are managing something ongoing.
WHAT A VISITOR PLAN IS
It is catastrophe cover, not health insurance. There is no preventive care and no routine visits. These plans also sit outside US billing protections, so an out-of-network hospital can bill you for whatever insurance doesn’t pay, and you will often pay upfront and claim it back with records. Buy 90 days even if you expect to need 30. The extra weeks are cheap, and enrollment hiccups happen.
the case for buying the real plan anyway
If you are healthy and above the subsidy line, staying on a $90 visitor plan instead of a $550 marketplace plan all year looks like free money. The maths checks out, and we still would not do it. The state penalty stacks on top. And the first real illness lands on a plan built to reimburse, dispute and exclude, not to treat.
Your salary is a healthcare decision
The bigger federal subsidies expired on 31 December 2025, and the subsidy cliff is back. Credits now stop dead at 400% of the federal poverty level. For a single person, that is $62,600 for 2026 coverage. Earn a single dollar over the line and the whole credit vanishes, because the credit does not taper as your income rises. The good news is that this is entirely in your control: you set your own salary, and you can model it before payroll ever runs. Drag your planned salary below and we’ll show you where you stand.
SECTION B — THE SUBSIDY CLIFF{{ salaryLabel }} · SINGLE FILER
Covered California projected that subsidised members’ payments would roughly double for 2026. One worked example: a 60-year-old earning $80,000 paid $554 a month in 2025 under the old credits, and pays $1,000+ in 2026 without them. Get your own quote at coveredca.com, because pricing is set per region and re-set every January. The grey band is California’s own programme, up to about $25,800. Green is federal credits. Red is no credit.
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WHAT CHANGES ON 1 JANUARY 2027
Under the 2025 federal tax law, work- and student-visa holders lose subsidy eligibility entirely on 1 January 2027. Covered California’s implementation guide limits credits to green-card holders and a few narrow categories. You can still buy the plan, at sticker price. Whatever subsidy you get for 2026, budget 2027 at the full number.
If you are above the cliff anyway, look at buying the same Silver plan off-exchange, meaning directly from the insurer. A pricing quirk loads extra cost onto Silver plans sold through the exchange, and buying direct skips it, so it has historically run cheaper. The trade is that there is no route back to subsidies if your income drops mid-year.
What beats all of this is a group plan through the company. Once the startup can offer one, the 60-day trap disappears entirely. Group enrollment runs on its own calendar rather than the individual-market window. There is no cliff, and the 2027 change does not touch employer coverage. Whether a founders-only company qualifies for small-group coverage in California is broker territory, so ask one before counting on it.
Pick a tier
If you just want the safe answer, pick Silver. The other tiers exist for specific situations, and the table names them.
THE TIERPLAN PAYS / YOU PAYPICK IT IF
BronzeThe cheapest cover~60% / ~40%You are healthy and want catastrophe cover at the lowest premium. The high-deductible version (called an HDHP) is the only one that lets you open an HSA, a savings account where you set aside money for medical costs before tax, up to $4,400 in 2026.
SilverThe middle tier◄ THE DEFAULT~70% / ~30%You have no strong reason to pick anything else. Unsubsidised in SF at age 30, it runs roughly $500 to $700 a month, depending on carrier.
GoldFor regular care~80% / ~20%You expect regular care. A pricing quirk loads extra cost onto Silver, so Gold sometimes costs the same or less. Always compare the two.
PlatinumFor heavy care~90% / ~10%You expect heavy usage. Not every carrier offers it in every region.
Where to go when something hurts
When something hurts, the door you walk through decides most of the bill. The same non-emergency complaint costs roughly ten times more at the ER than at urgent care, and the bars below are to scale.
Telehealth$34–49
Infections, rashes, refills, and “is this serious?” Sesame from $34, Amazon One Medical at $49.
Urgent care$120–250
Stitches, sprains, fevers, anything needing hands on you. Up to about $530 with X-rays or labs.
Emergency room$1,500–3,000+
Chest pain, breathing trouble, stroke signs, severe allergic reaction, major trauma. About $1,800 more than urgent care for the same non-emergency complaint.
Save a telehealth app on your phone now. It is also the fastest way to get a prescription in your first months. For a mental-health crisis, call 988, not 911.
The law does protect you at the ER. Under the federal No Surprises Act, an emergency visit costs you your plan’s normal in-network share, even at an out-of-network hospital, with no pre-approval needed. California goes further. Since 2024, state-regulated plans, which includes every Covered California plan, cannot charge you extra for ground ambulances either. Neither protection applies to visitor plans, and big employers’ self-funded plans follow only the federal rules.
bills arrive in waves
The hospital, the doctor and the lab each bill separately, sometimes weeks apart, and a scary number is often just an early draft. Pay nothing until your insurer’s matching statement, the explanation of benefits, arrives and the two agree. Since 2025, California bars medical debt from credit reports entirely, so a disputed bill cannot dent the credit file you are building. If you are billed wrongly anyway, call the help desks below.
The full brand mapping lives in the packing file. These four bite people in month one.
01
No US pharmacy can fill an Indian prescription
Most Indian antibiotics and chronic-condition meds are prescription-only here, so you cannot buy Azithral, or anything like it, over the counter.
02
Fly in with up to 90 days
Original packaging, an English prescription or doctor’s letter, declared at customs. Mailing more from India later does not work: the personal-use allowance applies at the border with you present, and mailed packages are routinely detained.
03
Book a primary-care doctor in week one
Waits for a first appointment run several weeks in big metros, so book before your strip runs low. A telehealth visit can bridge a refill gap for metformin, blood-pressure and thyroid meds the same day, after reviewing your Indian records.
04
Generics are cheap even uninsured
Metformin, amlodipine and atorvastatin each run under $8 a month with a free GoodRx coupon.
What to do now
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Good to know
01
You do not need proof of prior insurance
The federal rule does ask movers to show recent coverage. But the regulation says living in a foreign country during the 60 days before the move satisfies it on its own. Your Indian policy, or the lack of one, is irrelevant.
02
The document they actually want is your new address
A lease, a bank statement, a paycheck stub, or even a signed statement from you. Not your old address, and not Indian paperwork.
03
Paying yourself nothing backfires
Zero salary routes the application to Medi-Cal, the state’s low-income programme. Whether a just-arrived visa holder even qualifies there is murky. Pay a real salary and skip the ambiguity.