How to Add a Child to Health Insurance
Children can be expensive. Any parent likely already understands this. However, in addition to needing to do things for children like buy clothes, pay for activities, feed them and more, there are also many medical bills that parents must pay when raising children. Even if a child is healthy, he is still going to track up some pretty significant medical bills thanks to needed immunizations and check-ups. Because of this, it is definitely a good idea to add children to your health insurance.
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Instructions
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Get the child's social security number. This number is given out by the social security office not long after the child is born. It is sent or delivered to the parents of the child. Some insurance agencies do not require the social security number immediately, but they will need it soon after the birth of a child.
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2
Call the insurance company soon after the birth or adoption of the child. The representative at the insurance company can direct you how to register the child on your policy. Often they will direct you to a page on their website where an "Add Dependent" form can be printed. They also can send you this form in the mail.
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Fill the required fields in accurately. Most of these forms are fairly simple. In order to add a dependent, most insurance companies only require the policy holder's basic information and the name, date of birth, address and social security number of the child.
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Send the policy change form in immediately. Most insurance companies have an enrollment period for newborn or newly-adopted children of either 30 or 60 days. If you do not update the policy during this time, you will need to wait for the next open enrollment period, which usually occurs only once a year.
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Verify the child has been added. Just because you sent in the necessary paperwork, do not assume that everything will be in order. Within a few days of sending the information to the insurance company, you should call to verify that the information was received and that the child has been added. Once that is done, you can rest easy that you have added your child to your insurance.
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Tips & Warnings
By taking care of adding the child to the health insurance as soon as possible, a person will be able to minimize the possibility of getting billed for services he should not be billed for.
Failing to enroll a child within 30 or 60 days of birth could mean that the child could not receive health benefits for several months. This could prove to be expensive because children need to visit the doctor often during the first year of life.
