[markgigante]

A few months ago we found out my wife's sister was pregnant and asked us to adopt her baby. So, we started to go through all the processes with lawyers and home studies. About a week ago we ran into a big snag. My wife and I are self employed and need to carry our own health insurance, after our health insurance company found out we were adopting they dropped us. Not only that, not other insurance company will cover us because we are adopting. Because we can't get insurance, and because of Ohio law, we were told by our adoption agency and our lawyer that we cannot adopt. Keep in mind my wife and I are 27 years old and in great health. The only reason we were dropped is because of the adoption.

So, we can't adopt my niece because we don't have health insurance and we can't get health insurance because we are adopting.

If anyone has any Idea of what we can do, please let me know. The baby is due on Feb. 15th.

Thanks

[DreamingAzure]

Hmmm.....I would suggest that you talk to a lawyer again, because I believe it is illegal for your insurance to drop you for that reason...I think it is Federal law..but it might just be certain states.

Perhaps you could do a permenant guardianship until you get insurance again, and then move to adoption? I had a friend who had to do it that way here in Texas.

[DianeS]

A friend of mine ran into that problem when she got pregnant. Individual health insurance can do a LOT of things that group health insurance can not - including dropping you for pregnancy or adoption plans.

It's time for you to start shopping family plans that cover things like pregnancy. My friend had to have a prenatal visit (paid for out of pocket) and submit the results to the insurance company that they wanted to insure them. After the company reviewed her visit results, they decided the risk was acceptable and were willing to insure her.

Granted, the monthly payments were about triple what they had been before the pregnancy, and she had to sign a contract guaranteeing she'd stay with the company for two years (complete with early cancellation fees in the thousands of dollars), but she got her insurance, and it covered the baby.

So that's probably what you'll have to go find. It'll be expensive, but you can probably find a company if you're willing to jump through their hoops. Good luck!

[markgigante]

Thanks for the quick replies! Our insurance company can drop us because we would be with them for less than nine months before the child was born. We had just signed up with a new insurance carrier before we found out about adopting.
We also looked into other options with insurance, but unfortunately these options were way out of what we can afford. The medical bills out of pocket would almost be cheaper.
We are also looking into doing a legal guardianship and then adopt. We were told by our lawyer that the court may require health insurance to even do that. He says it's a 50/50 chance.
Right now we are looking into finalizing in other states as an option. But I've found very little info on how to do this or if it's even a possibility.

Thanks for all your help!

[Hadley2]

Originally Posted by markgigante

The medical bills out of pocket would almost be cheaper.

Of course they are. That is how self insurance works. We have been self-insured on catastrophic plans for the last 16 years. The deductibles are high ($5 -$10K), we essentially pay all well and sick visit bills out of pocket after the ins. company reduces the amount per its agreement with the medical financial network.

When I was pregnant with DD2, we had catastrophic insurnace that "covered" (after deductible) non-routine costs of pregnancy and delivery. That way, we could save and budget for the expected amounts and the insurance would cover (after deductible) anything extraordinary.

Then a friend in the insurance business told me that, since we are self-employed, that makes us the employers and that an employee cannot be denied coverage for a pre-existing condition if the employer changes plans as long as there has been no gap in coverage. So, as employer we changed temporarily to an HMO (much higher premiums) and as employees we could not be denied. About a year later, we switched back to the run of the mill catastrophic with lower premiums (still a lot for essentially nothing, but if something really big hit, at least we wouldn't lose our house, etc.).

All that said, I am also flummoxed by your insurance company's dropping you because they THINK you MIGHT adopt a child. So what? Are you not already on a family plan and would you not just be adding a dependent? People with children buy catastrophic family plans all the time, I am not understanding the problem. If the adoption were done and you came shopping insurance, they would sell it to you, yes? There just seems to be a miscommunication there, somewhere.

Finally, GET COVERED ASAP BY SOMETHING!!! You cannot afford to have a gap in coverage--that is the killer and the thing that will get you denied for pre-existing conditions. Good luck straightening all this out!