Health insurance question - NYC

amother

Sun, Jan 20 2013, 10:25 pm

I am looking for clarification. I just started a new job and will be joining the companys health insurance. For wtvr reason I dont want to put my kids on the plan when I sign up. I will put myself and my husband. I asked about adding my kids later in the month and I was told I will have 30 days to add any dependents. Can anyone confirm that this is true? Insurances are closed tomorrow so have to wait until tuesday to call them directly and get an answer from them.

ra_mom

Sun, Jan 20 2013, 10:28 pm

Depends where you work.
We can add to our plan at any time. Employer does limit to certain times of the year when we can cancel.
JOOC, what would you do if you have a new dependent, a baby? You can't add at any time/when the baby is born?

Lady Bug

Sun, Jan 20 2013, 10:35 pm

The way it works with my insurance is that you have 30 days from when a new dependant is born to add him/her on to the plan. I don't think this applies to dependants that you can add on right away.

amother

Sun, Jan 20 2013, 10:54 pm

ra_mom wrote:

Op here
Thanks for the replies. I didnt realize it was based on how the plan is set up with the employer. I thought there were general rules about it.
A new dependent, new baby, can always be added to a plan. An existing dependent is usually limited to open enrollment or specific reasons like loss of other coverage or something like that. Being that I'm a new hire I dont have to wait for open enrollment but also dont want to add my kids on immediately. (I am hopefully getting themon a different plan but wont know until a week or two after my insurance goes into effect. In the event it falls through I want to be able to add them as dependents)

ra_mom

Sun, Jan 20 2013, 11:27 pm

amother wrote:

ra_mom wrote:

Employers sometimes limit adding/canceling dependents so that they don't have to deal with people signing up and canceling all the time.