My wife and I are due with our first in late May. I'm trying to get things in order from a planning perspective where work and insurance come into the picture. I'm changing our withholdings now, as it's easy to see that we'll have the deduction for the whole year, so that doesn't need to wait. But what about insurance?
Currently we're on an employee + spouse plan. Changing to employee + family will cost a bit more, and is contingent on a life event (which, of course, includes birth of a child). I assume that we can't make this change until after the child is actually born. But how quickly after the birth will this go into effect?
If there are issues with the birth for some reason which result in the child needing time in the hospital, does the insurance for the mother apply? Also, I'm under the impression that there are a fair number of early doctor's visits for infants. I assume that for these to be covered, your policy must already be changed. Is there typically enough time between birth and the first doctor's visit for a post-birth insurance change to have gone through prior to the first doctor's visit?
