r/HealthInsurance • u/Sam3325 • Apr 04 '25

Individual/Marketplace Insurance Wife is pregnant no insurance

Hello my wife is pregnant she’s due October 17th She started a new job last year where she has no benefits she makes $72k a year and I make 55k a year. She had insurance from her last job and I have insurance through my job. She was promised benefits but never an exact date so at the meantime I didn’t add her under my insurance thinking after the 90days they would give her the benefit package (big mistake) We’ll 2 month into her job she’s pregnant her job is yet to provide insurance they have said they don’t know when she will get benefits. She works 40-35 hours a week but on paper it says she’s part-time. We do not qualify for Medicare because we make to much just wanted to see is there any way she could get insurance or help? We do make enough but with all our bills and debt we don’t know if the hospital bill will be to much for us. Doctor visits isn’t a problem but knowing thousands of dollars could be billed to us scares us

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u/laurazhobson Moderator Apr 04 '25

Part time and full time are legal descriptions and so there has to be some kind of policy which defines part time and full time - generally based on hours worked within a certain period.

You can't classify someone as "part time" if they are working 40 hours per week and other employees working 40 hours receive benefits as full time employees.

Does she consistently work more than 20 hours per week?

There are a very very few states which treat pregnancy as a Qualifying Event. I know NJ does but don't know of others.

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u/Tritsy Apr 04 '25

When I worked in Minnesota, I was a part time employee, yet frequently worked overtime and was not eligible for benefits because I was not registered as full time. I wanted to work part time, but they would consistently schedule me for 39 or more, knowing that staff always ended up putting in extra time beyond what was scheduled. That was legal, and it was a Fortune 500 company.

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u/kmsparty Apr 05 '25

You would have to be working 30+ hours on a consistent basis for you to qualify for full time benefits. For example, a lot of companies go by your rolling 13 week average hours worked. Meaning every single week has to average out to 30 or more hours. I think it may have been 32 hours a few years ago.