Cousin living in Florida gave up legal custody of his daughter to my sister in Pennsylvania this summer. Now she can’t get her health insurance because he still uses her for food stamps and his own insurance.

Hello everyone. I apologize in advance if I am extremely unknowledgeable, both about health insurance generally as well as this particular situation specifically. I am posting this here to do my small part in helping my family. I will tell you the entire situation as I currently understand it.

My cousin is a lifelong drug addict, and his life is kind of a mess. He currently lives with his girlfriend and child, as well as my aunt down in Florida. I don’t know what is accurate or true about their situation, both because they live very far away from me and because they consistently lie about things. His daughter is around 14 years old, I believe, and her mother died years ago from a heroin overdose.

This past summer during a gathering for my grandmother who had passed away recently, he agreed to sign over custody to my sister so that she could go to school in Pennsylvania. He said he was going to turn himself in (apparently he had a warrant for his arrest) and check into a drug treatment facility. Needless to say, that hasn’t happened yet, but his daughter is up here in my sister’s legal custody.

The problem is that my sister is unable to get insurance for her here, because she is apparently still on his plan in Florida. Getting him to resolve any sort of bureaucratic issues on his end is going to be impossible. The girl requires psychiatric medication and therapy, as well as all of the standard health care that had been neglected in her previous environment. I believe she is probably on Medicaid in Florida through her father’s plan, but I am not certain. Are there any steps that we can take from here to make sure the girl gets the help that she needs? It seems likely that we’re going to have to get lawyers involved again, but I’d really prefer to avoid that if at all possible.

If you need any additional specific information, I can make some calls, but that is currently the extent of my knowledge. thank you for taking the time to read this, and for any assistance you may be able to offer us.