I added my wife to my crappy work health insurance, but then realized she was already on her parents much better health insurance. Is there anything I can do to reverse this?

Not sure if this is the right place to ask this, but google is not being helpful: I got a new job, and when I took health insurance I asked my mom (who has worked for Medicare for 30 years) if my wife had to change to my insurance. She’s 22 and she was on her parents insurance. My mom said she definitely had to change.

I now realize that being married does not disqualify you from being on your parents insurance until your 26. I did the math, and over the next 6 months the difference in the health plans will cost me about $4,600. That is a huge amount for us, and I’m quite poor as a result (Poor as in I have no discretionary income, I eat mostly Ramen every meal, and our AC is broken and our house is just staying at 88 degrees this summer).

Is there any way to fix this before open enrollment? If not, is there any way for her to keep her other insurance as well? It would actually save a lot if she could use her parents insurance (while we pay for both). I don’t think there is a qualifying event. Her parents insurance already paused coverage, I’m guessing because someone notified them of her new coverage, but they haven’t cancelled it yet. I don’t know if I can go to the other company and tell them to correct the first company. It seems unfair that she could lose good coverage without signing anything just because her husband is a doo-doo brain.

(Also, for what it’s worth, my Father-in-law said he may save like $60 a month if he switched, so that would change the net cost for me + extended family to $4,240.)

See also  Best small business health insurance for your company

Other details: I live in NC. Deductible is $3,000. I think the out-of-pocket cost is effectively the same for both plans.