What are the laws to drop a spouse from your insurance plan?

My husband recently opened his own business and had to get insurance for his company. They had a great health coverage package to go along with it so he decided he would go in that direction.


I am currently trying to drop him from my benefits plan, but I am being told that one of two options may occur. #1) He will have to wait until the end of the year to come off my plan. #2) I will incur a $50 surcharge each paycheck. I do not understand this.





Can someone please explain?





Thanks!What are the laws to drop a spouse from your insurance plan?
I work for a brokers office doing health insurance and I have never had a problem terminating a dependent at any time throughout the year. All insurance companies are different but the majority is that you can drop a dependent off your health plan at any time. If the plan runs 1st of the month then you will have to wait till the end of the month for him to be terminated. So if his new insurance is effective 3/1 he should be able to be dropped off your medical plan effective 2/28.





The one time a year rule is for if you are adding a dependent to your group plan, this is called open enrollment period where you can add dependents. Or a life change event where you can also add dependents on off anniversary. If it is your employer that is telling you that you cant terminate him off your plan then I would suggest calling the member services number on the back of your medical card and asking them about it.What are the laws to drop a spouse from your insurance plan?
You can only drop a dependent during open enrollment at the end of the year or if you have a qualifying event. A qualifying event would be the birth or death of a dependent or a divorce or a qualified judicial decision. Otherwise, your plan can refuse to allow you to make any changes or charge you a premium for doing it.
Once you sign up for insurance through your job, you have to wait to make changes until a period called Open Enrollment. It usually happens once a year. I think the only exceptions are if you are newly married, newly divorced, or have a new baby or one of your dependents dies. Any other changes have to wait for open enrollment to be made.