Company may have screwed me out of spouse health insurance? Help?
My spouse left his job on 3/31 this year for a new job that started on 4/11, where he was not eligible for health insurance benefits until 7/1. Upon trying to enroll, he found out that the health insurance was significantly more expensive than expected.
I reached out to my HR to ask if we had any options for enrolling him under my plan and if there was a qualifying life event.
My email stated:
” Is a spouse eligible for company sponsored medical and dental plans, regardless of whether their employer offers health insurance coverage? It is fine if this needs to be done during open enrollment. Spouse got a new job 60 days ago (just got their benefits packet today – outside of the 30 day window for a qualifying event), and their benefits were much more expensive than expected, so we are trying to look at other options.
Additionally, is there anything that could allow a qualifying event in this situation? His employer does not provide benefits until after 90 days of hire, but this is outside of the qualifying event window here, so it was hard to foresee needing insurance in this situation.”
Their response:
“Thank you for contacting HR regarding your case titled “Spouse on insurance plan”.
Life Events are for the effective date of the change. So in your case, when would your spouse’s benefits start? Has that happened already, is it upcoming? If it’s upcoming (or isn’t past 30 days from when he’s eligible) you can do a life event. You will need a letter however from his employer to show the date of when his benefits would have started as that will be needed when you do the life event. We also will need a copy of the marriage certificate as well. We hope this addresses your questions or concerns. Please let us know if we can further assist you.”
I supplied the letter from his company saying he would have been eligibile for benefits to start in 7/1. But now my HR is coming back and saying the qualifying event would have been 30 days from end of his previous employment (3/31). Now, he is outside the window for enrollment at both my job and his and would have no health insurance until open enrollment (…. january). Do I have any grounds to fight this or to get health insurance coverage for him at my employer, especially since I have this in writing? What is the best way to go about this?