Divorced dad wants to cover his kids on medical insurance

Paul in Cannon Beach

One of our employees who is divorced has two kids (ages 9 and 17). Apparently he is not responsible for them legally. However, his ex-wife is not able to afford medical insurance for them. The children live in a different state.

He would like to have them added to his medical insurance plan. His medical insurance is provided by us (his employer). We pay all of his premium currently.

Does anyone have a policy on this subject - covering children of divorced employees on insurance.

Thanks!

[email]paulknoch@hotmail.com[/email]

System

One of our employees had a similar situation. Since our insurance company would not cover his children, he went back to court and asked the judge to order that he provide the insurance. Having a court mandate provided him with a qualifying reason for the insurance company to cover them.

slewis

I totally agree to this. I personally know this works, my husband went through it with his ex. As of now the child from the previous marriage is on MY insurance policy.

AZOTHR

In our company employees must experience a "qualifying event" in order to make changes and or additions/removal on their health insurance plans. Our policy: if the event (marriage, divorce, birth, adoption, gain/loss of other coverage) occured in within 30 days from the date we were notified we will let employees make the change to their insurance plans. If it its past the 30 days we give them the option to wait until open enrollment every december at that time they could make changes to their plan. Have they also been divorced more than 30 days? that would be considered a qualifying event as well.

I agree with the other 2 suggestions, getting a court order would work as well, as long as it is inwithin the 30 day period.

indiana

The latest legislation says that if the court order requires a parent to cover the kids on their insurance, the employer will be ORDERED to add the kids to the policy regardless of the employers in house time frames of changing the dependents. Look for a National Medical Support Notice from the child support enforcement agency and follow the instructions on it.

sonny

Indiana in Ohio, there's a new one.

clarkbar

Have you checked with your carrier? What do they say?

cthr

A court order is generally considered a qualifying event, it does not have to be within the 30 days of the custodial parent losing coverage. My stepdaughter was covered by her mother's health insurance-she now goes to college out of state-her mother's insurance is only local. My employer (who we had coverage thru) had a national plan. The mother petioned the court to have my husband, ergo me, to provide coverage, the court wrote the order, my company had to provide coverage. Neither the mother or the child lost coverage. The court order was the qualifying event.