Do Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Qualify for Insurance
There are today according to the census bureau more and more grandparents who face the situation where they have to raise their grandchildren. Here are some of the statistics on the matter: in 2004, 4 % of children were being raised by someone other than their parents, and of these 55% were being raised by their grand-parents as opposed to 1.9% in 2001.
Rarely do these children have health insurance from their parents as they are often times not working. Even when they are working many of the parents who cannot care for their children are not in a position where they themselves have health insurance. What are grandparents to do?
When grandparents have insurance they sometimes find that this insurance will not cover children without proof of adoption. Adoption is not always the solution to resolve the temporary situation these children are in.
Another group of grandparents have health insurance through the state or the department of defense retiree programs. Again in this case children who were not adopted do not qualify as dependents for insurance purposes.
There may be many other reasons why grandparents cannot get health insurance for these children. Every state has a medicaid insurance program for low income families. These programs are the first place to turn to, to secure insurance for uninsured grandchildren.
While medicaid programs are for low income families, some do offer insurance regardless of income for grandparents raising grandchildren. Keep in mind that these children would, were it not for your raising them, be in foster care and cost the state much more. Local SRS offices are the place for the first line of information. You should ask for programs that are not income contingent, as the lack of coverage cannot be overcome.
For families who have other financial challenges beside that of securing health insurance, relatives raising children may find that they qualify for other benefits, such as child care subsidies, special educations services and/or disability payments. The Children Defense Fund doe have some information about these programs.
For children who were under the umbrella of the foster care system, before being placed in a relative or grandparent’s home, the Federal Kinship Guardianship Assistance program may also have available funds to help raise these children.
While requirements for application may vary with each state in the union, at the time of writing this article every state had a program of low cost or no cost health insurance for grandparents as caregivers.
