California residency and fulltiming

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Diron

Member
Joined
Feb 20, 2014
Posts
5
We are retiring this year, and will be fulltiming. Our medical coverage will require us to have a California address, so we are going to remain residents of this state. We are selling our home and will not have real property here.

If there are others in this situation, could you share what you do for a legal address in California? Does a UPS Store address work as a physical address when required?

Thanks!
 
That is a possibility. We don't want to cause any issues with anyone else however, if claiming an address  where we do not live may raise the ire of the state.

Looking at all options at this point.
 
I'm wondering how that would work.  If the insurance company finds out that you do not live, and have not lived, in California for a year, that might be cause to cancel your policy and not pay claims.  I'm probably making this out to be worse than it is; but insurance companies will use anything they can to get out of costs for them.

Maybe all you need is like Wendy said a family member's address; or a P.O. Box.  A P.O. Box might be acceptable for residency.  I live in California and recently I had to prove residency and I needed a "utility" bill or tax bill to prove it.  So, I'm not sure your family member address would work.

What about changing insurance companies?
Marsha~
 
Does your medical insurer only require that you have a California address, or do they state that you must live in a California?  I know that's how it works with Kaiser.  In fact, I believe Kaiser requires that you live in an area serviced by them.  Something else to think about.  My Kaiser Senior Advantage HMO states that If I am away from their service area for more than 6 months they must end my coverage.  The way the clause is written suggests it is a Medicare requirement.     


 
Hello Diron,
We are facing the exact same dilemma and have come up with the "rent a room" idea in our covered area. Our medical coverage states that you must reside in the covered area and that they could require you to prove it at some point, doesn't say what that means. I guess if you didn't have a lot of out of state claims and still returned for check-ups, etc., would they really care.
It's an important question that we having quite pegged down an answer for.
Good luck, would love to hear you solution.
Gary
 
I would say have a conversation with them to point out the specific wording/clause in the insurance contract. This will tell you if you have to "have a CA address", "be a legal resident of CA", "live in CA", or whatever.
 
I believe Kaiser requires that you live in an area serviced by them.

This is what they told me when we were making the leave-or-stay decision.  They said it is a requirement of Medicare even though we were not on Medicare at the time.  They still have to abide by Medicare rules.

Aside from medical insurance, California is really picky about residency and you don't want to mess up!

ArdraF
 
Does a UPS Store address work as a physical address when required?

The answer to that depends on who is asking. The CA DMV might give one answer, your medical insurer another, etc.  If your insurance is an HMO, e.g. Kaiser, you have to actually obtain your medical treatment from their designated providers in their area. You are declaring where you reside, not where you get your mail.
 
Thanks for all of the ideas and information. It sounds like this is a very grey area where those of us that choose to not have a permanent place of residence are not accounted for under current rules and laws.

We are Kaiser members, and plan to stay with them as this is a benefit provided in retirement. When I spoke to them a year ago, they said that they only needed a CA address. When told we may have residency in another state their reply, via email, was "As long as you don't change your mailing address out of area, your benefits will remain active."

In further research, it looks like a bad idea to try to claim residence in another state and keep CA medical, as the state can use this to demand CA taxes. Thus, the dilemma of how to maintain CA residency without a home. We are also looking at Escapees Coop campgrounds in California as a possibilities, but that is an expensive option if you are not going to actually live there a large percentage of the time.


 
We are Kaiser members, and plan to stay with them as this is a benefit provided in retirement.

That really does complicate the issue.  We were members without any corporate affiliation so we had the freedom to leave the area or not.  They don't make it easy, do they?

ArdraF
 
Do you have friends or family that you trust who still live in CA? If so, I'd suggest "moving in" with them and taking over one or two of their bills (gas bills are typically cheap here in CA) and paying that for them each month. In exchange for free gas, ask your friends to forward your medical bills/mail to you when it comes. You can have everything else sent to a mail forwarding service and call it a day.
 
Long-time forum member and fulltimer Bob Buchanan dealt with this issue as a California resident and Kaiser subscriber who traveled extensively on business. Bob hasn't been around much lately, but you could try the Search button in the menu above to find some of his posts on the subject.
 
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