Health care for a visiting 6 month visa

Hello,
I was wondering how I would go about getting health insurance while I am visiting for 6 months in the UK. Im from the US, and am not going to work or study, just visit. I think I get free emergency care, but it is all a little bit confusing. If anyone has any advice on this subject that would be great. Health insurers frown on you in the US if you have gone any period of time without insurance.
Thanks!

I would first check with your own Health Insurance company, as you may be covered already. (My policy with Blue Cross / Blue Shield includes coverage abroad.)

I have seen other US travelers strongly recommend getting insurance through World Nomads

http://www.worldnomads.com/?gclid=CJ6e1PaT-LgCFVDJtAodMF4AOQ

You can get health insurance for traveling abroad. As far as having issues with health insurance if you go without coverage, will you still have an insurance plan you are maintaining stateside while you are away? If so there wouldn't really be any gap in your coverage. Also, I recently went a year without health insurance (not a fantastic idea but I survived) and it didn't matter to my new insurer. They didn't even ask; I just enrolled when I was eligible to receive insurance from my employer.

The best thing to do, if your US health insurance won't cover you in the UK, is to take out travel insurance with medical cover for the 6 months you will be in the UK.

I take out travel insurance any time that I go on vacation outside Europe and I also purchased a year-long travel insurance policy when I lived in the US for a year... it was back in 2003/04 and it cost me about £350 for the whole year.

I discovered that regular job-based health insurance from US will often only reimburse you for any medical expenses -- after the fact.  The doctor in the UK will have no way of checking your coverage and getting the treatment/whatever approved, so you would have to hope that the insurer would accept it and pay you back.

All the times I have needed to use my travel insurance they have reimbursed me when I got back, so I don't think that is too unusual.

All the times I have needed to use my travel insurance they have reimbursed me when I got back, so I don't think that is too unusual.

I haven't had to use my travel insurance before, but that's the impression I've always had about how it works... if you need medical care while travelling abroad, you pay for it yourself and then claim the money back from the insurance company afterwards.

I haven't had to use my travel insurance before, but that's the impression I've always had about how it works... if you need medical care while travelling abroad, you pay for it yourself and then claim the money back from the insurance company afterwards.

When we had family visiting us in the USA, brother-in-law had an accident requiring a visit to the ER.  He paid by CC and his travel insurance refunded him in full on his return to the UK.