Spouse Insurance

[Whitney Combs]

Jurisdiction

North Carolina

Hi, me and my husband seperated over a year ago, neither of us filed for separation papers nor divorce yet. He has health insurance through his work...
I'm wondering if there is some way I can make him add me to his health insurance, I do not have an type of health insurance and I am in emergency need of dental care.
Please help!

 

[Tax Counsel]

Hi, me and my husband seperated over a year ago, neither of us filed for separation papers nor divorce yet. He has health insurance through his work...
I'm wondering if there is some way I can make him add me to his health insurance, I do not have an type of health insurance and I am in emergency need of dental care.
Please help!

If you file for divorce you could ask the court to order that you be added to his work insurance at least until the divorce is final. Whether that request would be granted I can't say — you'd need to ask a local family law attorney about that. The problem, however, is that even if your husband agreed to add you to his insurance that likely could not be done until the next open season for his employer, which is generally in the fall. Moreover, dental insurance is often separate from health insurance; most health insurance plans don't cover much dental work.

 

[army judge]

I'm wondering if there is some way I can make him add me to his health insurance

Most people dislike being forced, coerced, or ordered to do anything.

There's very little chance of you making your estranged spouse do anything.

You might be able to ask him if he'll add you to his insurance plan.

However, not all employer supplied medical plans include dental services.

You can speak with a lawyer about obtaining a divorce, a temporary spousal support order, and how the lawyer can get your estranged spouse to pay for it all.

What you can't do, a judge might be able to do on your behalf.

 

[Zigner]

Hi, me and my husband seperated over a year ago, neither of us filed for separation papers nor divorce yet. He has health insurance through his work...
I'm wondering if there is some way I can make him add me to his health insurance, I do not have an type of health insurance and I am in emergency need of dental care.
Please help!

Were you on his health insurance and then he dropped you?

 

[hrforme]

North Carolina doesn't view separations as a reason to have a qualifying event since there is not a "legal" separation status in NC. Unfortunately, in my research, the actual final divorce date is the qualifying event. But IANAL.....just know this from researching this for an employee who was hoping to drop her current spouse prior to any divorce.

 

[cbg]

Concur; even liberal Massachusetts does not consider a separation to be a qualified life event to add or drop dependents to a health plan. It would only be possible during the Open Enrollment period. And the odds are very, very good that once the divorce is final she would have to be dropped from the plan anyway; it's unlikely in the extreme that an ex-spouse would be considered an eligible dependent to be covered once they are no longer married.

And of course, Tax is quite right that dental insurance is going to be separate from health insurance most of the time, which is just one more hurdle she'd have to go through.

Bottom line, this dog is not going to hunt.