Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
So I just started a new full-time job and my wife works as a home care nurse. My dad told me that it might be cheaper to have separate health insurance until my raises and I just put the family on mine. As of now my deal is pretty good (can go to urgent care and not pay anything) at about 50 out of my monthly paycheck. It jumps up a crap ton with a family plan i think. So my dad suggested we go separate to save money as a starting family. Told my wide the plan, she said she would check her plan, kept having to remind her. She seemed completely okay with it. Came back home after work one day and she gave me a song and dance (from mother in law) on joining my plan (with the unborn child, which i believe doesn't count in the docs of my options it has to be born to be added). Told me it doesn't make sense, but I read the plan over and asked questions with HR, I know what my options are. I was with HR for almost 2 hours making plans.
Asked her if she checked with HR at her work for healthcare she said yes, which doesn't make sense because she never came to me telling me her health care options wouldn't work. She came to me after going home and getting this new idea. She couldn't have done both in that short amount of time and I'm aware of her habit of not always remembering to do what I ask. Besides saying I'm the main provider of the house, there's really no logic to joining mine before looking into her options. I mean she has a conservative mindset, which may be effecting this, as she was talking about wanting to stay at home in the future and not work at all, which in my opinion will become a less likely possibility in this country in the future. But her main claim is that she needs 40 hours a week to qualify (which she should request from her agency since one of her nursing clients is troubling and dropped her hours a bit) and that if she gets sick or goes into labor from the baby next year she will lose her healthcare for being out of work. The agency is government funded if that makes a difference. That sounds more like it doesn't make sense than my options, of course she had no documents to show me or anything. So I'll ask for those before I make a decision to put her on mine. The baby was going on mine anyway, so Im not concerned with him.
Going home to talk to my dad and would also like some feedback from here. Is her medical plan as bad as she says?
Realize you usually only have 30 days to pick your health plan at your new job.
If you are planning for a baby next year, maybe it makes sense for her to be added to your health insurance plan now, IMO. Then once the baby is born, you switch to a family plan. I think when the baby is born you have 30 days to add a new dependent, part of the 'life changing event' that allows you to make changes outside of the fall open enrollment period.
Then if she decides to stop working, she will already be on your insurance plan so no switching will be required. Ditto for the baby. The entire family will be on one plan. That will be easier for everyone to deal with.
Sounds to me like your wife isn't interested and that is why she isn't getting you the information you need. You have to put your foot down and make her understand that this is her life too and she has to help with the decisions. That's what I had to do. My husband didn't even know his former employer offered insurance and they offered a whole host of plans he could have been eligible for. He came home one year and said he missed open enrollment. How do you miss that? I'll tell you how you miss that...by refusing to accept and use the technology that is provided. He wasn't reading his company email! and another
Is she currently pregnant? If so, she should stay on her plan until after the baby is born. Enroll the baby on your plan after birth, and then add her at your next enrollment period.
If she's not pregnant yet when your next enrollment period comes around, you could add her then. Or she could decide to stay with her current plan if it has better pregnancy/birth coverage. You want your whole family on the same plan eventually so you can share family deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums.
But whatever happens, don't try to switch health insurance plans mid-pregnancy!
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
44,585 posts, read 81,225,683 times
Reputation: 57822
Quote:
Originally Posted by STT Resident
Suggest you ask her to bring home all the information on the health plan and go over it with someone familiar with all the ins and outs.
I agree. We both have to choose new plans during open enrollment since my old plan is not available any longer due to issues with the "cadillac plan tax." We have spent many hours going over both of our options,
and so far she is signing up herself (only) for one that her employer offers at no cost to her, but with large deductibles. That way she can choose which to use depending on the treatment she will need. I have still not figured out which I will go on, waiting for the provider presentations, but I will add her to mine as well for probably about $50/paycheck total. The question is whether to have a high deductible combined with a medical savings account or lower deductible. We'll have to do spreadsheets using actual retail costs of what we would have spent if we had no coverage in the last year and determine which plan will cost us the least.
It sounds like the OP's wife just wants to avoid having to deal with all of this very complicated mess that healthcare has become. It's a very important decision, though.
Is she currently pregnant? If so, she should stay on her plan until after the baby is born. Enroll the baby on your plan after birth, and then add her at your next enrollment period.
If she's not pregnant yet when your next enrollment period comes around, you could add her then. Or she could decide to stay with her current plan if it has better pregnancy/birth coverage. You want your whole family on the same plan eventually so you can share family deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums.
But whatever happens, don't try to switch health insurance plans mid-pregnancy!
Okay, thank you for this. Ill wait as planned. Can you explain the bad consequences of switching during pregnancy so it can be explained to my wife, my mother in law thinks this is something I can negotiate lol, no, they chose my options and I take what works best.
If you can definitely switch your wife to your plan during her pregnancy. The only consequences could be her possibly having to switch doctors. My friend just gave birth and had to pay thousands out of pocket with her high deductible. I was lucky, I only had to pay $25.00 for my entire pregnancy.
If she's not pregnant yet when your next enrollment period comes around, you could add her then.
Since this is a brand new job, he doesn't have to wait until annual enrollment. Although that should be around the corner if he misses his 30 day window for enrollment as a new employee
Since this is a brand new job, he doesn't have to wait until annual enrollment. Although that should be around the corner if he misses his 30 day window for enrollment as a new employee
Nah I missed it, may have to get her into a legit full-time job anyway.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
