Advice needed- health insurance for wife to be & I

[JHZR2]

Hi, My fiancee just graduated with her doctorate in physical therapy. I work for the Navy, and have good benefits. She was on her parents' health insurance, under COBRA, and will be until the day we are married, then the insurance kicks her off. Now, things should make sense, right? She goes on my health insurance, right??? Well, here is the kicker: the job she is taking offers free health insurance (apparently quite good too) for her. For others, it costs quite a bit. So, right now I pay $38 per pay period (26 of them per year) for my health insurance. I have a high-deductable health plan, coupled to an HSA. I an mever sick, so it is a very cost effective way for me to have coverage in case of the worst, and put away $100+ for health-related expensed for the future. For "life events", one can change their health insurance option as needed. however, otherwise, they must wait for open season. This means that if I add her on as of wedding day, my insurance will go up to about $70 per pay period, and after her start date at work (about a month after the wedding), she will be insured by her company and mine, thus being doubly inusred. Seems an awful way to throw away money. So the options are as follows: -she goes without any insurance from wedding day until work start date, and we be extra careful -I sign her up for mine, and then pay for her until my open season, so she will have double insurance for quite some time -Forget about her free insurance from work, sign her up for mine, and just have her free plan as a backup incase of whatver emergency she might ever have -I sign her up for mine and then drop all of my benefits nd join her plan That is what I can guess to be our options. They are all lousy in one way or another. I wish she would have been working from before we get married, so that she would be covered, and I could keep the status quo. however, that isnt the case, and I am afraid of her being uninsured, because of the amount things cost these days... Any information or advice would be appreciated. Thanks! JMH

 

[74DartSport]

Short term gap insurance article. Keep yours separate, have her get short term to fill the gap until hers kicks in. Run them both and see how the coverage works. After some time re-evaluate both; decide which is better and go with it. My wife and I when we married kept our own insurance. We looked at things like physicians in network, need for referrals etc and decided mine was better so during an open period she changed over.

 

[rjundi]

Gap insurance is a great option. No insurance is an extreme gamble. There is no such thing as extra careful no matter the health of an individual. I know you likely inquired but typically a Cobra plan can turn into regular plan and usually at good rates. I fell off Cobra back in 2002 and was converted into a regular plan as I am self employed since 9/11/2001.

 

[javacontour]

Is she on a Cobra plan or does she have one available? I ran into this going from job to job on one instance. I was advised by HR to fill out the paperwork for Cobra, write the check and have it ready to mail, but only send it if there was an accident or illness. Typically you have some period of time to accept or reject the coverage. You will have to look that up. So you can hedge your bets this way, if Cobra coverage is being offered.

 

[Pablo]

74DartSport nailed it. Free insurance or insurance for $36 ppp? I don't want to sound all weird - but you guys are VERY lucky. Last job I paid $440 month for the family. Now I pay $2XX/month for the whole family, which is a good deal - even so this neck job is getting pretty pricey.

 

[wantin150]

Interesting that this came up. My company recently changed insurance. They went to a $1500 deductible with a HSA option. Kicker was NO prescription coverage (or a SLIGHT discount on some). They pay the premium so no "cost" to us. The prescriptions I take would cost me $1400+ during the course of the year so not much savings to me at all as I wouldn't even meet the deductible. I scrambled and was added ("Out of season") to my wife's insurance which is pretty good. Now it seems that my company realized that the new plan was totally screwed and switched back. I'm still not happy with the way it all worked out but I'm staying with my wife's plan (To give you an idea, our Son's birth was $10,000. We paid $250 total, start to finish. My knee surgery cost us $1500. It would have cost us $100 on her plan.) I am a firm believer that you should get out for as little as possible, especially if her insurance will be very good at no cost to her. BUT, if YOUR insurance is better, than it may be better for you long term to add her to yours. You just have to run the numbers and see. From what you said, you have a high deductible which may not be in your best interest with her on the plan.

 

[Al]

Do not do the short term insurance and do not go without coverage for her. Short term will only pay catastrophic things anyway and then you might have trouble getting her under either plan bc of pre-existing conditions. Just take those 2 options off of the table. In the unlikely event that your marriage is long term..there is no point on takiong a risk for sake of a few bucks. If this is a problem you can't afford getting married anyway. Look at the other options carefully. Your priority is protecting yourself from hospital stays which can easily run 25K bucks to "the sky is the limit". Which job is going to be the most stable? The devil is in the details look at both carefully. In some plans if you chose not to include spouse the option is gone forever. That's the coming trend. At your age you can probably do with cheaper rates and higher co-pays look at the "what iffs". Assume one hospital stay for each of you in a calander year. Can you afford the maximum "out of pocket" At our age..hospital stay is more likely so we choose the higher monthly rate and the least "out of pocket" expense. Sickness is the biggest cause of money problems and money problems the greatest risk to divorce.

 

[benjamming]

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In the unlikely event that your marriage is long term..there is no point on taking a risk for sake of a few bucks.

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pessimistic are we?

 

[Al]

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In the unlikely event that your marriage is long term..there is no point on taking a risk for sake of a few bucks.

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pessimistic are we?

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60% failure rate = realistic.

 

[Pablo]

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Short term......you might have trouble getting her under either plan bc of pre-existing conditions

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Makes not that much sense in this case. This is NOT a reason to pass on insurance.

 

[Fatboymoe]

In my situation, my wife has a great insurance policy and I am able to get Health in Lieu. My employer pays me over $200 a pay period not to have it, which is half of the lowest premium. The really good part is that if something happened to my Wife's job, I can instantly get health insurance. Not all employer's offer this, but it's something to consider if it is available. Too bad this isn't offered when I retire in a couple of years.

 

[GROUCHO MARX]

Are you going to be covered under wife to be's insurance?

 

[Al]

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Short term......you might have trouble getting her under either plan bc of pre-existing conditions

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Makes not that much sense in this case. This is NOT a reason to pass on insurance.

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My point was not to do short term. No insurance and short term are the worst two options.

 

[JHZR2]

I could be, but given my premiums, apparently it is much more expensive for me to be convered under her's than her under mine, though my rate does double. She gets 'free' coverage for herself, but there is a charge for me to join. The whole problem is the month or so before she gets hers, where she is unemployed.... She will not be uninsured, the key is how to keep as many bucks in my pocket over the next year, since reverting would not be possble until the next open season. Since it is only a month or so before she gets her coverage, Id hate to be stuck paying for both for many months, just so she was covered for one... that's my issue. Thanks! JMH