health insurance

[blessedwithboys]

my ex is court ordered to provide health ins for my ds. i actually prefer medicaid bc now i have to cover co-pays as ex generally refuses to pay them. i know i can go to court to ask for OOP expenses to be 50/50, but he says he'd rather just add ds to his new wife's plan.

i didnt think a step mother (or step father) could add step children, esp if they dont even live in the same house.

we're in the US

btdt's???

[Momtwice]

I know a teenager who is on her stepmother's insurance. As with other things, this may vary by state as health insurance laws do. They do not live in the same house. (Yes it's the USA)

I would check with an attorney and/or get the plan booklet from the stepmother's employer.

[ProtoLawyer]

Originally Posted by blessedwithboys

my ex is court ordered to provide health ins for my ds. i actually prefer medicaid bc now i have to cover co-pays as ex generally refuses to pay them. i know i can go to court to ask for OOP expenses to be 50/50, but he says he'd rather just add ds to his new wife's plan.

i didnt think a step mother (or step father) could add step children, esp if they dont even live in the same house.

we're in the US

btdt's???

It depends on the policy and what the court order says.
I know my current insurance will allow me to put my stepdaughter on if there was a court order indicating my husband was required to provide her insurance and my husband was on my plan. (I'm switching insurance soon so I'm not sure what the next policy has to say, but my SD has good insurance through her mom and we just reimburse half the premiums.)

Getting a court order would be simple, too, if for some reason my SD needed to be on my insurance--they could just file a stipulation indicating that Dad provides insurance, and a court will usually just sign (since it wouldn't be controversial or contested).

Depending on the exact terms of the policy (and whether his existing doctor was covered on it, that sort of thing), it may be worthwhile to put your son on his stepmother's plan--does the stepmother have other children? If so, it probably wouldn't cost any more than "family" coverage already does.

[blessedwithboys]

she has no other kids and wont ever

my ex is on her plan also as his secondary insurance

i think it would actually complicate matters for me though. shes a sweetheart and a great step mom, we get along well enough, but i cant imagine how it would work with billing issues. for example, ds has a scrip that wont be covered by his dads plan. his back-up medicaid will pay 100% but not until the private ins denies the claim. we cant get anyone to bill them bc they know it wont be covered, so medicaid wont pay. total catch22 and ex has been neglecting to call the ins for an EOB for the last month. ugh.