Does it have to be American Health Insurance?
For instance if you are working in Japan, do you have to buy Japanese Health Insurance or Amrican Insurance that will be useless if you need medical care in Japan? Also How soon after gettign back tothe USA will you have to buy Ins?
Look, guys, this is trivial to google:
“Senate health bill expats” yields:
http://knifetricks.blogspot.com/2009/11/senate-health-care-bill-expats-exempt.html
This is far, far easier than posting a vanity and checking for responses.
And, note, you are probably half my age - so you have no excuse for technical illiteracy.
P.S. Answer is they are exempt from the insurance coverage requirement - but not from other atrocities like higher taxes.
You do not have to buy Japanese insurance. You can buy it at anytime w/o penalty (at least when I lived in Japan). I had Kaiser Permanente insurance when I was living in Japan and had my parents order my insulin and send it to me overseas. Japanese hospitals were in the diabetic dark ages (doctors asking me questions about diabetes, U30 needles, no insulin pens) and I wanted better care.
You basically pay a premium and receive care at a 60% they pay/ %40 you pay percentage.