[mouschi]

We are adopting form Kyrgyzstan and were wondering about Health Insurance for our deaf 4 year old daughter-to-be. What all have you done about health insurance? We are leaving on thursday! Any help greatly appreciated!

[kidmd2b]

Hello,
It may depend on your insurance. I went back to my insurance booklet and looked up the adoption/birth section. It stated that as long as we added the child within 30 days of birth/custody, they could be added with no problem. As we have not adopted yet, I do not know what they require as proof of adoption or how much resisitance we will meet. Some people have said they had to send a copy of the birth certificate. I also don't know if your plan has any negatives against pre-existing conditions which would come into play with medical services having to do with deafness. I would call your insurance provider and just say that you are adopting and traveling on Tuesday and want to cover your child. I would then ask what paperwork needed to be faxed to prove adoption or to get the process started. Please let me know how it works out so that I can be more informed on the process.
Good luck,
Cindy

[waitingpatiently]

I Asked My Insurance Company 3x About This Before I Got The Right Info. I Have Blue Cross Blue Shield Of Florida.the 1st Two People Said I Had To Write A Letter Saying What Date I Was Adopting! Finally The Third Person Said I Had To Fill Out A Form. I Finally Got The Form Which Said Adoption At The Top; It Also Said It Was An Addendum To The Change Of Card Form(which I Did Not Receive). It Also Said Something About Pre Existing Conditions! Hopefully It Will All Work Out! Make Sure You Find The Right Person To Talk To And Write Down Their Name, Title, Date And Time!

[caestes]

I called my insurance (Blue Cross/Blue Shield of NC) and asked them the same thing recently - especially in regards to pre-existing conditions, both known and unknown. They had to research and call me back but said that for our plan, adoptees are covered from the date of placement and that there is no waiting period for pre-existing conditions. You should really call your insurance company just to make sure you know what you need to in advance. That will give you real peace of mind as you travel.

We're looking at some waiting boys in Kyrgyzstan! Do you know about the yahoo Kyrgyz. group? If not, PM me and I'll send you the link.

Blessings in your travel. How exciting!

Christine

[Max'smom]

I believe that generally federal law requires your employer's insurance to cover adopted kids (including preexisting conditions) just as they would bio-children.However, there are sometimes bureaucratic snafus that complicate your first efforts to get insurance providers to apply the law right.

Please see the following articles about this topic:

http://www.adoptivefamilies.com/pdf/...%20Children%22
http://www.adopting.org/adoptions/he...-children.html
http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/index.php/Adoption

The applicable federal code section is found at 29 USC 1169(c), which states:

"The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (OBRA) of 1993 amended the ERISA Act of 1974 requiring that any group health plan which provides coverage for dependent children must provide benefits to a child placed for adoption under the same terms and conditions as apply to a child who is the biological child of a plan participant. OBRA'93 also eliminated the requirement that the child's adoption be finalized in court before coverage. The new law also prohibits carriers from restricting coverage of adopted children on the basis of a preexisting condition."

By the way, you probably will need to call your employer and/or insurance company immediately and perhaps enlist the help of the social worker who did your home study and your adoption agency, both of which probably should have ideas on how to proceed with getting coverage to start. My insurance is through an HMO, which required that I submit paperwork well in advance of our trip to pick up our new son. It took several phone calls to get to the right person, at first they told me that I didn't need to do anything, but it later turned out that I had to submit an "intent to adopt" form.

[Colorbind love]

If you have a group health insurance plan, legally your insurance must cover your child at the point they are in your custody and on US soil with NO pre-existing clauses in place. The same is true if you are a Federal employee. Its just 2 different Federal laws apply to the different situations.

The only place it can impact is if you have individual health insurance. At that point, there is very little you can do. Your insurance would have the right to tag the child pre-existing and require you to wait 12 months for coverage.

There is ONE loophole to the pre-existing clause, which we got tagged and our insurance attempted to erroneously claim when we brought our son home. Apparently, the laws which govern pre-existing conditions certify you *as a family unit*. So, if you experience a lapse in your insurance coverage within the last 12 months, insurance can tag anyone in your family as pre-existing when you resume coverage. And adoptee falls under this the same as an biological child in the home, as it essentially re-sets your pre-existing coverage clause.

We had changed insurances 2 months before bringing our son home. Our insurance attempted to reject his medication claim and call it pre-existing, demanding to have our pre-existing certficate from our last insurance before agreeing to cover him. Dh's employer had to chew them out and demand they cover first and get their documentation second.