"Life Events" for your USC's Corporate Health Insurance

[BethyWink 96]

I am the USC, and my husband is Scandinavian. With Open enrollment happening in less than a month, I have the question on if anyone had advice on hif I should insure him during OE, or if I can technically qualify as him "losing" his insurance as a Life Event? I do not want to pay for 8 months of insurance, if he will not be out here till Sept but I do not know if there is a way around it?

[MariaR323 199]

Don't enroll now. Once your husband has his POE with his green card, that is a qualifying life event and you can then add him on to your employer plan (if you have one) or also go through your state's medical exchange and/or the federal one.

[f f 725]

him emigrating to the us would be a qualifying life event so he can be added to yours or sign up for his own. also getting a green card is a qualifying event not sure if he has it yet or not.

my step child came out to visit last summer for 2.5 months and the hr person at work was able to have her put on when she arrived and taken off since they considered it moving here then moving away so 2 qualifying events.

[Russ&Caro 1,549]

Don't enroll now. Once your husband has his POE with his green card, that is a qualifying life event and you can then add him on to your employer plan (if you have one) or also go through your state's medical exchange and/or the federal one.

him emigrating to the us would be a qualifying life event so he can be added to yours or sign up for his own. also getting a green card is a qualifying event not sure if he has it yet or not.

my step child came out to visit last summer for 2.5 months and the hr person at work was able to have her put on when she arrived and taken off since they considered it moving here then moving away so 2 qualifying events.

I found it not to be the case that my wife could be added to my health insurance plan, outside the open enrollment period. 2 years ago, I spoke directly with HR and they said that I needed to add her well in advance of her POE (which ended up occuring in July 2015), during open enrollment. They told me that immigrating here would not qualify as a life changing event for her.

I'm not saying that Maria and/or ff are wrong. I'm just advising you to check with your employer, first. Also, I would allow that perhaps my HR dept was giving me bad information.

I made the bad choice. I put her on my insurance 6 months in advance instead of waiting until her arrival and putting her on an Obamacare policy, where her immigration to the US would have qualified as a life changing event.

[JFH 12,191]

*~*~*moving from "what visa do I need" to "moving to America" as OP's husband has arrived and now looking at health insurance*~*~*

[hasmax80 22]

I found it not to be the case that my wife could be added to my health insurance plan, outside the open enrollment period. 2 years ago, I spoke directly with HR and they said that I needed to add her well in advance of her POE (which ended up occuring in July 2015), during open enrollment. They told me that immigrating here would not qualify as a life changing event for her.

I'm not saying that Maria and/or ff are wrong. I'm just advising you to check with your employer, first. Also, I would allow that perhaps my HR dept was giving me bad information.

I made the bad choice. I put her on my insurance 6 months in advance instead of waiting until her arrival and putting her on an Obamacare policy, where her immigration to the US would have qualified as a life changing event.

I agree with you completely as I have similar situation where I expect my wife to immigrate around March or April next year. I was told immigration is not a qualifying event. Although I was told given my situation I will need to send my case for review. My wife is in a country where health care is paid when services is received and no insurance is available.

I think since the questioner spouse is in Scandinavia and moves to the US then technically they have lost coverage which is a qualifying event. If the insurance documentation stating eligibility lost due to relocation then it's evidence to indicate that coverage is lost.

[f f 725]

https://www.healthcare.gov/coverage-outside-open-enrollment/special-enrollment-period/

straight from healthcare.gov

Household moves that qualify you for a Special Enrollment Period:

Moving to the U.S. from a foreign country or United States territory

most hr people do not know the immigration parts. when on doubt print out information from .gov websites or the actual law so they can not question your source.

[MariaR323 199]

Also, there's a difference between entering the U.S. on a K-1 Visa and entering as a Green Card holder.

But yes, most HR employees are not too familiar with all the qualifying life events.

[bcking 3,157]

I checked with my employer when I started over the summer. They told me to wait until my wife arrives then contact them to add her to my plan. As others have said, confirm it with your employer.

[Thegirl 225]

My husband had to wait till I was here but qualify as life event because he got married. Marriage and having kids is also a qualifying event.

[BethyWink 96]

The kicker with the internal benefits with my company state "Loss of insurance from employer" So that would probably NOT count for loss of insurance from home country, correct?

As for my husband being here, he is not here yet... we do not have a CR1 visa, and just got transferred to NVC, so we do not have an eta on his arrival. But we are already married, so the K1 of the wedding qualifying it does not exist in this case.

[bcking 3,157]

Bethy,

Did you ask them if the move would count specifically? I asked directly and they said it would count for my spouse immigrating here. At least in my case I have documentation so if they disagree later I can show it to them.

[f f 725]

https://www.healthcare.gov/coverage-outside-open-enrollment/special-enrollment-period/

straight from healthcare.gov

Household moves that qualify you for a Special Enrollment Period:

Moving to the U.S. from a foreign country or United States territory

print the page from healthcare.gov take it to hr and show them where it says immigrating to the us qualfies for special enrollment. since he is coming with a cr1/ir1 visa he is considered to have just gotten his green card when he arrives. that is also a qualifying event.

best thing is to have printed out and highlighted the important sections so they don't have to do any work besides agree with you.