Emmit

My wife came in here via a K1 visa. Got married but missed the
deadline to add her onto my insurance at work. Our policy at work is
to add a new member onto the insurance either within one month of the
change in status (within one month of marriage) or during the
enrollment period, which was back in August. Since it was very
expensive to add her onto my insurance and since we planned to delay
having a child for few years until she gets use to the country, we
thought adding extra for her insurance was something that we can set
aside for a while. We found out about the pregrancy about two weeks
ago. Since money is tight at this time, we need to use the county's
assistance. I just want to make a deal with the county on a certain
pay plan for the OBGYN care for her ASAP. I know we can not be
eligible for the free or little fee service that the county charges
based on the monthly income. I make over 45K but little to no money
in our account at this time. So, if we get some help from the county
run clinic and use their service, will that be considered as a public
burden that can affect us later during AOS? Please advice. Thanks

E. Brown

Folinskyinla

Hi:

It IS a problem. It can be solved and taken care or and adjustment will issue.

lpdiver

Emmit,
You make sufficient money to take care of this. You need to insure right away. Yes maybe the pregnancy will be excluded but what about the millions of other things that can happen. Unfortunately, you gambled and lost. Now you pay for those gambling debts. There are lots of low cost ways to have a baby...get to work.

wesleygolf

I am glad i saw your thread here because the same thing happened to me. Try this, as it is good information and it will work. Go to your phone book and start calling various physicians and tell them your story. Also call your local hospitals. Tell themwhat happened and they are usually willing to do one of two things or both. Most are very sympathetic and will tell you that they will let you start making payments NOW towards the cost of the doctors charges that she will have later, also they will usually reduce the cost because of your situation which will help. Also, when you do find a physicians office that will do that for you, ask them to recommend a hospital that might be willing to do the same. Most people on this site might say there is no chance of this, but they dont know personally like i do. Not every physician will do this for you, but rest assured there are many that will. It took about 4 phone calls for me, and i found doctors that worked out the arrangement, and 2 hospitals were willing. Just remember, sometimes if you ask, you receive. Dont stop until you find someone that will do it. You can start NOW, and pay them so much a month, you will be suprised at how much will have paid them and the rest you can continue on a payment plan after the baby is born. The best of luck to you !!

Dekka's Angel

Have you spoken to your employer again? If not do so TOMORROW.

This month of November is, for many employers, what is known as Open Enrollment Month. Which means that during this month, you can make any and all changes necessary to all your employee benefits, including health insurance, even if you were late under the employer's normal policies for signing up dependents, etc.. I know that for the largest group health insurers, your wife's pregnancy will be covered if you get her enrolled on your employment based policy.

Now, I know that for your company this period was in August, but for virtually all other companies, it's now. So, there might be a way that your wife can be added during the insurance company's "open enrollment" regulations even though you're late. You should contact your human resources specialist RIGHT AWAY. It can't hurt to ask.

Failing that, many states now have well-baby programs where your wife can get free/low cost prenatal and well baby care when your child is born. There will almost certainly be providers in your county in the program.

Good luck!

Mrtravel

Dekka's Angel wrote:

    > This month of November is, for many employers, what is known as Open
    > Enrollment Month. Which means that during this month,

The period may not be for all of November.
Our's was from a day in Oct to a day in Nov.

lpdiver

In his post he states that Aug. is open enrollment in his company.

Dekka's Angel

Yes, I know, as I said in my post. But for most insurance companies it is not - the default is the month of November, for the upcoming year beginning January 1. So there may be a way to slide him in "under the radar". And he won't know that unless he asks.

Rete

Angel is right, IMHO. There is no harm in approaching your HR department and asking about adding the spouse to the company's healthcare plan. So it will cost you money to do so, if allowed, but hell, look at all the money you will be spending to pay for an unplanned pregnancy. I assume since you could not afford birth control, paying for this child is going to be quite financially tramatic for you.

Just off the top of my head, I recall reading that healthcare benefits received from the state are not means tested benefits. If this is indeed true can't your wife get a state funded healthcare policy for the time until she is eligible for coverage by your company?

You might want to check that out by going to your State's website.

Rete

Emmit

wesleygolf <member17672@british_expats.com> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
    > Originally posted by Emmit
    >
    > > My wife came in here via a K1 visa. Got married but missed the
    >
    > > deadline to add her onto my insurance at work. Our policy at work is
    >
    > > to add a new member onto the insurance either within one month of the
    >
    > > change in status (within one month of marriage) or during the
    >
    > > enrollment period, which was back in August. Since it was very
    >
    > > expensive to add her onto my insurance and since we planned to delay
    >
    > > having a child for few years until she gets use to the country, we
    >
    > > thought adding extra for her insurance was something that we can set
    >
    > > aside for a while. We found out about the pregrancy about two weeks
    >
    > > ago. Since money is tight at this time, we need to use the county's
    >
    > > assistance. I just want to make a deal with the county on a certain
    >
    > > pay plan for the OBGYN care for her ASAP. I know we can not be
    >
    > > eligible for the free or little fee service that the county charges
    >
    > > based on the monthly income. I make over 45K but little to no money
    >
    > > in our account at this time. So, if we get some help from the county
    >
    > > run clinic and use their service, will that be considered as a public
    >
    > > burden that can affect us later during AOS? Please advice. Thanks
    >
    > >
    >
    > > E. Brown
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    > I am glad i saw your thread here because the same thing happened to me.
    > Try this, as it is good information and it will work. Go to your phone
    > book and start calling various physicians and tell them your story. Also
    > call your local hospitals. Tell themwhat happened and they are usually
    > willing to do one of two things or both. Most are very sympathetic and
    > will tell you that they will let you start making payments NOW towards
    > the cost of the doctors charges that she will have later, also they will
    > usually reduce the cost because of your situation which will help. Also,
    > when you do find a physicians office that will do that for you, ask them
    > to recommend a hospital that might be willing to do the same. Most
    > people on this site might say there is no chance of this, but they dont
    > know personally like i do. Not every physician will do this for you, but
    > rest assured there are many that will. It took about 4 phone calls for
    > me, and i found doctors that worked out the arrangement, and 2 hospitals
    > were willing. Just remember, sometimes if you ask, you receive. Dont
    > stop until you find someone that will do it. You can start NOW, and pay
    > them so much a month, you will be suprised at how much will have paid
    > them and the rest you can continue on a payment plan after the baby is
    > born. The best of luck to you !!

Thank you to you all who responded to my post. Your suggestions were
very helpfull. I already spoke to our Benefit Administrator last week
about adding my wife onto my insurance. She told me that she checked
with our insurance company which declined to add my wife after the
open enrollment period was over. I will do all I can to lesson the
worry. Fear of facing the unknown is a bit worrisome. But we are
thankful to God that we are together and that we are also adding
another member onto our family.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!!

E. Brown

Marjeta

I would kill my husband if he got me in a situation like that, but that's just me.
But seriously, your wife's health should come before everything else, pregnancy or no pregnancy. I think you should have thought of before you got yourselves in this situation, and AOS and other things shuldn't even be your main concern at this point.
If you make 45K a year that doesn't exactly make you a social case, so you either have a serious problem with managing your money or I don't know. But I bet it would be easy to skip other luxuries in order to provide a basic such as health insurance.

Some previous posters already gave you some really good advice so you really should figure something out. Sorry about the rant...

Rete

Whereas it is easy to say that an income of $45K is a lot of money, we do not know what his expenses are. $45K before taxes means in some states and major cities he will see that amount less federal, state and city taxes, ss withholdings, medicaid withholdings, transportation costs to and from work, etc. If a rental here in the greater NYC area, he could be paying $1200 or more a month for a one bedroom apartment. Or a mortgage with heat, real estate taxes, insurance, etc. costs on top of that. He perhaps has children he pays child support for. Or gives funds to an elderly parent to ease their living expenses. Or has high medical bills for prescriptions. In my firm the employee gets free medical coverage. Spouses and/or independents must be paid for and a family of three costs an employee $624 a month in medical insurance costs.

While I agree that it was and is foolish not to have signed her up for healthcare insurance when available and to take the necessary precautions to delay pregnancy if you didn't plan on having a family right away, the choices were his and hers to make. All we can do is wish them the very best.

Rete

Dekka's Angel

In the area of the country I live in, for the purposes of determining eligibility for assistance programs such as low income housing, a family of 2 making $44,850 per year is a *low income household* under the relevant state guidelines. This means, for practical purposes, that the family faces some difficulty paying their living expenses without some sort of assistance.

Perspective is everything. You have no idea how little $45000 will buy, in some places in the US. Don't judge until you've tried it.

Mrtravel

Marjeta wrote:

    > If you make 45K a year that doesn't exactly make you a social case, so
    > you either have a serious problem with managing your money or I don't
    > know.

In some parts of the US, $45K is not an overwhelming amount of money.
My 900 sq foot 2 bedroom, 1 1/2 bathroom condo is no a "luxury" and is
valued at about $350K or more. 4 years ago, I was shocked that I paid
$206K for it. I couldn't believe something so small could cost that
much. (No, we are NOT near the beach)

Marjeta

I never said 45K was an overwhelming amount of money. To me however an important thing such as health insurance takes precedense over most things - call it luxury or not luxury, money can be channelled into what you need the most. And if you cannot afford taking your pregnant wife to the doctor I would definitely put that 2 bedroom/2 bath apartment, a new piece of furniture, christmas gifts or a new car payment on the back of my list.