If both spouses have health insurance, a coordination of benefits (COB) occurs. Make sure that both insurances know about the other. The health insurance of the person who was born earlier in the year becomes the primary insurance. Any referrals or restrictions on the insurance come from this plan. The second insurance then pays some or all of the remaining amount.
Often, having both members having insurance does not make financial sense because you are paying more for the combinrd insurances than you are receiving in benefits from them. This is not always the case however, and you should discuss your individual situation with an expert.
That's a great question! The good thing is that you both have coverage, the bad thing is you are probably paying too much, and will create paperwork headaches for your insurance companies. The suggestion I'd make is that you both compare plans, and ask your HR or plan administrators who benefits most by adding their spouse, and then drop the lesser option. Thank you for asking!
That will depend upon how you are covered. If you are both covered as Employee Only at your respective employers then neither of you is covered as a dependent on the other's health plan and you are covered subject to your plan's benefits and your spouse is covered subject to their plan's benefits. The same situation would apply if you were both covered under separate individual major medical plans.
The issue of coordination of benefits only comes into the picture if one or both of you are covering each other as dependents on the two plans you are covered under. This is a relatively rate situation in 2014 though it was not that uncommon many years ago. If for some reason one or both spouses is covering the other as dependents then the coordination of benefits rules would apply. The spouse who is born earlier in the year will have the coverage that is deemed "primary" in this double coverage scenario and then the other spouse's coverage would come in on a "secondary" basis and pay towards any amounts not covered by the primary plan. At most you would achieve 100% coverage but in no case would the combined payout from both policies exceed the total claims amount.
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Often, having both members having insurance does not make financial sense because you are paying more for the combinrd insurances than you are receiving in benefits from them. This is not always the case however, and you should discuss your individual situation with an expert.
The issue of coordination of benefits only comes into the picture if one or both of you are covering each other as dependents on the two plans you are covered under. This is a relatively rate situation in 2014 though it was not that uncommon many years ago. If for some reason one or both spouses is covering the other as dependents then the coordination of benefits rules would apply. The spouse who is born earlier in the year will have the coverage that is deemed "primary" in this double coverage scenario and then the other spouse's coverage would come in on a "secondary" basis and pay towards any amounts not covered by the primary plan. At most you would achieve 100% coverage but in no case would the combined payout from both policies exceed the total claims amount.