Keep Your Health Insurance Coverage Current During Life Events

Summer is a season of graduations and weddings.  Life events like these often have an impact on the health insurance coverage of those involved. When a new person joins your family or a child is no longer deemed a dependent it can affect their eligibility under your health plan

Insurance Deadlines
Often times your plan will allow for a two week or one month window after the life event in which you can update their medical, dental, and vision benefits.  My employer gives us 31 days from the date of the event to make the necessary changes. 

New Baby or Job Changes
It’s not just weddings and graduations, bringing home a summer baby or a spouse’s seasonal job change are also considered life events.  We had our son in the summer and I took three weeks off after he was born.  When I got back to work I was swamped trying to catch up from being gone for so long.  I didn’t realize I only had a week left to add him to my insurance plan and only discovered on the last day that I was almost out of time.

Update Your Benefits
Luckily I got him added under my benefits, if I hadn’t we would have been required to wait until the next open enrollment.  He would have had to stay on my wife’s insurance plan which was much more expensive than mine. So if you have exciting family events happening this summer be sure to check with your Human Resources department to maintain your family members health insurance coverage.

Ben Edwards, the founder of Money Smart Life, saved up enough to buy a Nintendo back when he was 12 years old. When he used the money to buy shares of Wal-Mart stock instead, he knew he wasn't like the other kids... His addiction to personal finance has paid off for his family and now he's helping you to afford the life that you want. Check him out on the web at Google Plus, Twitter and Facebook.

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