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Can I Sign Up My Wife for Medical Insurance If Her Company Offers Medical Insurance?

One employee benefit is medical insurance. If you and your wife both work you may both be eligible to receive health insurance from your employers. Although both your employers may offer health insurance family plans, the quality of the policies may differ, as can the amount you pay in monthly premiums. You are not required to sign up for the health insurance at your job if you do not want it.

  1. Reasons to Sign Up

    • You may opt to sign your wife up for your health insurance policy because it will cost less than you would pay for her health premium through her employer. Another reason to sign up is if her coverage is not as good as with your policy. For example, the deductible and co-payments with her employer's plan may be higher, and the network of doctors she can visit may be smaller. You may also want to sign her up if you want her to have two health insurance policies. This virtually eliminates your out-of-pocket costs for health care, but it is only beneficial if you spend less on monthly premiums than you would for health care.

    Reasons Not to Sign Up

    • If your wife receives health care through her work, then having her sign up for your health insurance may be redundant, especially if her company covers her monthly premium completely. If the policies are similar in coverage or are in the same network of doctors, you may not need the dual coverage, and you can save the money you would spend on health insurance premiums for other things. Often adding a spouse costs more than adding children because of the maternity insurance involved, so you may choose to add any children you have without adding your spouse.

    Signing Up

    • You will need to contact your human resources office to sign your wife up for insurance through your employer. You will need to do it when you first become eligible or during an open enrollment period offered by your work. Another option is to have a qualifying event to add your wife. These include getting married or your wife losing her job or insurance coverage. If she already participates in the health coverage plan through her own job, it will be more difficult to have a qualifying event that will allow you to add her to yours.

    Dealing with Two Insurance Policies

    • It is possible to have two different health insurance policies -- one with your spouse's employer and one with your own. In this situation, when visiting a doctor your spouse would need to give both insurance cards to the doctor's office. Her work insurance would be considered her primary policy and your work insurance would be considered her secondary policy. The doctor's office then files with both insurance companies, and you are responsible for what is not covered. The primary insurance policy typically will cover the majority of the claim, and the second generally will pick up the remainder of the balance.

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