Adding a Baby to Your Health Insurance Plan
Congratulations!
If you’re reading this article you may probably have welcomed a cute and charming little addition to the family or are expecting to have one soon.
Having a baby can be a very exciting and emotional time for any mom or dad. There are so many things to figure out most especially when it’s your first time.
It can be a little overwhelming.
To help you comb through the things you need to consider for your baby, let’s go straight what you’re here for — adding your baby to your health insurance.
If you have a comprehensive health insurance, there’s a good news. Adding your baby can be very simple. However, you have to do it within a specific period of time.
How long is this time period? When does it begin and end? What’s the advantage if you enroll your baby within this period?
Let’s answer those questions.
Enrolling Your Newborn
A comprehensive health insurance will cover your child from the moment he or she was born. This is true for a comprehensive insurance. But if you have a short-term insurance policy or a catastrophic health insurance, this may not be possible.
Typically, enrolling your baby must be done within the first 30 days after he or she was born.
If you’re expecting a baby soon, it is wise to call your health insurance provider and ask them how you can prepare for it ahead of it. But if the baby is already born, you have to act quickly and prepare all the necessary documents to make it to the 30-day time period.
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Why do you have to do it within 30 days?
Childbirth is a qualifying event for most comprehensive health insurance policies. This means that the insurance company will allow you to add your baby to your policy as a dependent so that he is cover and even change your current health plan.
This provides you an opportunity to seek out a plan that is better than the one you have is you wish to change it.
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Adding a Baby to Your Current Policy
You can add your newborn to your existing health plan. It is important to review the benefits your child gets when you list him or her under you.
It would also be good to ask about the additional cost. You have to know how much his deductible out-of-pocket maximum and coinsurance would cost.
Once enrolled, you baby his coverage may include checkups, procedures and any other medical incurments.
You also have to understand that the health plan will cover your newborn retroactively. This means that any consultations and procedures, among others, will be covered even before the date that you’ve signed him or her up.
To add the newborn, you need to prepare two documents, the newborn’s birth certificate, and social security number. If you personally got your plan, you can tell your provider that you just have a baby and you wish to add him or her to your policy.
If you got your health insurance from your job, you may have to coordinate with your company’s HR about it.
Having a Different Plan Altogether
As what we’ve mentioned earlier, your baby’s birth is a qualifying event. If you think that having him or her makes your present health insurance inadequate, you may switch to a different health insurance policy altogether.
You can do this by comparing your current policy with other policies available. It may be possible that the “right health plan” you have before the baby was born, won’t be the best policy now what you have an addition to the family.
This is the time to look for a better plan not just for your baby but for you as well.
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