Why am I asked about adoption plans?
In most states, applying for health insurance requires the applicant to go through medical underwriting. The insurance company, in order to determine if they want to approve the application, must have health status information pertaining to all persons to be included on the policy. Since a child that you are planning on adopting can’t be included on the policy until they are a legal dependent, the insurance company is unable to review that child’s health status during the application process. Therefore, they will likely decline your application for coverage until the adoption has been finalized and they are able to verify the health status of that child. Even if the child has already been born, the insurance company will not be able to verify their health until you are the legal parent. This is because you are not authorized to legally include them on the application or authorize a request for medical records until they are actually your dependent. Any application for health coverage that asks this question will decline your coverage if you answer “yes” to the question. Promising the insurance company that you have no intentions on adding the adopted child to your health policy will not be acceptable. And, they are restricted under law to prevent you from adding this child to your coverage once you become the legal parents. 1 CommentLeave a comment |
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Why am I asked about adoption plans?
This is very similar to the reasons why the health insurance company wants to know if you are planning a surrogacy, or if any male applicant is expecting a child with any person, whether they are listed on the application or not. Adopted children are protected under federal health insurance regulations that guarantee them coverage on a legal parent’s health plan within 31 days of the adoption finalization. This means that, regardless of the health of a newly adopted child, the insurance company must accept them as a dependent on the adoptive parent’s coverage. All types of medical insurance have this requirement, rather it be an employer-sponsored group policy or an individual/family health plan.
In our adoption, our insurance carrier started paying children health insurance after the TPR (Termination of Parental Rights). We brought our son home with use directly from the hospital at our own legal risk. Then it took 8 weeks before the TPR took place in court. Our agency then told us to inform the birth clinic that the Medical Assistance costs should be billed for the appointments that took place in the time between we took him home and the TPR. The agency couldn’t really apply for Medical Assistance after until the TPR. Billing takes that long, so that when the bills are sent Medical Assistance can cover them.
If you want to pay a portion of the medical bills for the birth, then that would probably have to come out of your own pocket. If we didn’t have insurance, our agency told us that they would have helped us get some financial support to pay for the birth.
Comment by Rose — May 24, 2009 @ 10:39 am