Comprehensive Sickness Insurance

[ninaah1980]

Hello everybody,
this is my first post and if you had asked me a year ago I wouldn't have expected to find myself on an immigration forum. But alas, this is life - full of unexpected turns and events.
My question is concerning comeprehensive sickness insurance. I am a EU citizen (German) with two British born children and their British father/my partner (to be married within the next 12 months hopefully). I will have been in the UK for 10 years this coming September.
In light of the upcoming referendum I had wanted to apply for citizenship which requires proof of permanent residency reached after 5 years of exercising treaty rights. However, during a cosultation with an immigration lawyer I have found out that I have fallen foul of a rule I was unaware of at the time - I did not have comprehensive sickness insurance during a year as a stay at home carer (after my maternity leave was finished). Consequently, my 5 year qualifying period started again in September 2012 when I resumed work and I will have to wait a bit over 18 months till I can apply under the current rules (which of course might change...). An out vote in the June referendum will mean that my stay here (and those of many more people of course) will have to be renegotiated and I think this could involve private health insurance if Britain does not strike a deal that involves being part of the EEU including Free Movement. I do not want to wait with purchasing insurance till I am forced to do so in case I fall ill beforehand which could make it very expensive or impossible. In case of an out vote I would go ahead with it this summer. It can always be adjusted to the actual requirements or cancelled in the future if not needed.
I will obviously use comparison sites etc., but I am wondering if anyone here has recommendations for a then 35 1/2 year old healthy person with no history of grave illness, but issues on one parent's side? Are there any self-sufficient EEU nationals in similar circumstances (age etc.) on this board that currently have CSI? What are the monthly costs likely going to be?
Thank you very much in advance.

[secret.simon]

This, to me, sounds more like a question of which health insurance policy to purchase rather than an immigration question, which is not within the remit of these forums.

But, what I would say to you is,
a) Don't worry so much. Your children and significant other are British. It is highly unlikely that you would be booted out of the UK. The absolute worst case scenario is that you will have to apply for ILR under the 10 year legal residency route under the UK Immigration Rules (something that you are ineligible for at the moment because you are an EEA citizen).
The far more likelier option would be that the UK and EU would negotiate some sort of temporary agreement to cover people in your situation and that you would still qualify in two years time.
Once your get ILR or PR, you can directly apply for British citizenship as the spouse of a British citizen (assuming you are married by then).

b) You mentioned you were German. I faintly recall a case on these forums where a German citizen was able to get PR after it turned out that her German health provider covered her in all countries in the UK. A letter stating that from the health provider was enough to count for the purposes of CSI. It may be worth exploring that option.

Without wishing to cause offence, may I repeat the advice of our Prime Minister- "Calm down".

[LilyLalilu]

You do not need CSI as you are currently working but it certainly doesn't do any harm having it if you don't mind paying. I'm currently with Aviva (am in my late 20ies so not 100% the same age). Depending on which options and additional cover items you choose the price goes up; I for example have full-cover including dental cover etc. and am currently paying £55 a month. There are providers which are a lot cheaper - it really depends what level of cover etc. you are looking for.

For the year without CSI that broke your continuous exercise of treaty rights; were you by any chance still insured in Germany and could produce confirmation of this from your Krankenkasse or a German EHIC for this period? If so, this could replace CSI and you may already have obtained PR if that's the case.

[ninaah1980]

Thank you very much for your replies LilyLalilu and secret.simon.
I appreciate that the question wasn't strictly immigration related, but I simply don't know any people personally who are in my situation despite knowing other Germans and EU Nationals.
I did not have German health insurance anymore during the gap so that backdoor is not open to me. I will simply have to wait for the outcome of the referendum and for the next 18 months to pass till I can proceed with my application, hoping that the rules won't have changed by then and that exit negotiations after a potential "Brexit" will be lengthy (very selfish I know).
Keep calm is good advice and for what it's worth I am (mostly) calm. I just don't want to be nastily surprised in the future with no money put aside for expenses that might become necessary and since exit is a realistic option I wouldn't even be able to say that I never saw this coming