I (f30) and my wife (32f) are planning on conceiving soon. I will be carrying and birthing our baby but she has much better insurance. Does anyone have experience as a non birthing parent adding your child as your dependent on health insurance? In our state they do have presumption of parentage for same sex married couples but we’ve still been advised to do the second parent adoption for full protection. Is the presumption of parenthood enough for her to be able to add our child as a dependent or will she have to complete the second parent adoption to get those rights? Does it matter if she’s legally recognized as a parent or can she add our baby as a dependent on her insurance either way? *I know this isn’t valid legal advise but curious if anyone has experience with this situation
Echoing others: I am in PA and am the non-birthing parent (with good health insurance), and we had no problem adding our baby to my health insurance. To do this, I had to provide some documentation to our HR system to add our baby as a dependent. Initially they were fine with the informal “announcement of birth” that the hospital provided before we received the actual birth certificate. Then I think I had to add the birth certificate (but honestly my brain is foggy) once we got that. I was on the birth certificate, and then eventually went through 2nd-parent adoption (which was not necessary for health insurance purposes but, like other posters, was a no-brainer for us to do for maximum legal protection).
I'm in Washington and was the non birthing parent for our daughter last year. I'm on her birth certificate and we have presumed parentage of the non birthing spouse. All I had to do was send in her birth certificate and they added her no problem!
I am also in Washington and I didn’t need her birth cert or even SSN, I just submitted her name via my company’s insurance portal. No issues so far (3 mo old).
You're probably right, my daughter is 16 months old now so the memory is very fuzzy. I'm about to have twin boys on Monday though, so I'll learn again soon!
Congrats!!!
I am the non-birthing parent and added my children to my health insurance in Maryland and Virginia with no problem. After my wife gave birth, the hospital gave us a certificate of live birth with both of our names listed to use for insurance purposes (while we waited for the official birth certificate). We did a second parent adoption for both kids, but that was not required for me to add our kids as dependents on my health insurance.
I am the non birthing parent and was able to add both of my kids without issue. The only proof that was asked was like proof of birth not parentage. I live in NY. You shouldn’t have a problem.
Although I am on my kids birth certificates I did go through with the 2nd parent adoption just to have that level of protection (since you never know with this political climate). I would recommend doing that regardless to be safe (especially if you travel).
My child is on the non-birthing parent’s insurance only. Just had to provide birth certificate that has her name on it.
This is making me feel so much better, thank you all! I’m so glad there’s one thing that’ll be relatively simple
We’re in California and the whole family was on the non-birthing parent’s insurance. I don’t think it would be any more trouble if the birth mom wasn’t on the insurance though as the non birthing parent was also on the birth certificate
We’re here in IL and kid was added to non birthing moms insurance. TBH bc I was recovering from a c section my wife did the whole thing but she said it was easier than she expected.
We also did do second parent adoption after the 2024 election. Just, you know, because of all this gestures broadly. Would recommend our attorney if you are in IL. Cost just under $2k including all fees. The attorney also got the (zoom) court appearance waived so it was very very simple (but completely maddening bc wtf)