I am an adult who is disabled on dad's policy dad is now senile and not paying bills

[frenchtoast]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? I am in Massachusetts.
I am 36 years old and an adult who has been disabled for most of my life. My dad is old enough to be my grandfather and he is starting to do things like pee on the bathroom floor at night. There are lots of things for me to do. My question for this post is: He is probably going to stop paying bills soon. My health insurance -medicare and medicaid will still be in effect but his fancy private insurance will be out. Legally how many billing cycles does he need to stop paying before they can bump us both?

He is hiding things from me and I will have to find a way to sneak through his financial records and find stuff out. I might be able to find a way to continue the insurance payments but I don't know if I can do that and I would rather not be in the situation of going to a doctor and having the insurance company tell me that I need to pay out of pocket.
There is an operation that I might be having over next summer. My doctor is recommending a tonsillectomy.

He can still present to most people that he is totally normal but if you live with him he is not. I also live with his older sister and she is getting squirrelly too. I am moving into a friends place to keep my sanity while I work on this.

 

[justalayman]

. Legally how many billing cycles does he need to stop paying before they can bump us both?

One.

any failure to make a payment on a contract is justification to terminate the policy.
If your father is not mentally sound, you, or somebody else, could petition to act as his conservator. That would allow the conservator to take care of dad's financial dealings.

Other than that, your ability to do anything is quite limited.

 

[frenchtoast]

I need to know if this is an official legal opinion

I know that in these contract they usually give you a grace period. I don't know if they legally have to though. If that is something that they legally have to do as part of the contract I need to know about such a grace period. That is my question.

 

[justalayman]

Unless there is some contracted grace period, there is no grace period.

 

[Betty]

Some private ins. policies give a 30 day grace period - however, you would have to read the policy & see what it says.

 

[cbg]

It matters whether this is a group policy through his employer (even if it's through a retiree program) or an individual policy.

If a group program, then there is usually a 30 day grace period. I *think* it's law but I'm not 100% certain since someone else in my office manages the late payments.

If an individual policy, then if it's due on the 1st they CAN cancel if payment is not received on the 2nd. Most don't, but how much time they will give is policy - specific.

 

[Betty]

When OP said private ins. policy, I was thinking individual policy though possibly OP did mean group ins. policy

All of our individual policies at the co. I worked for give a 30 day grace
period. (& the individual policies my family has all give a 30 day grace
period) OP would need to read the policy to see what it says re any
grace period.