UPDATE: In the comments, some readers have conveyed that many insurance companies automatically add a newborn to an employee’s health care coverage. Evidently that is not the case with the plan covering Alaska state employees. The following paragraph is from the Select Benefits Health Dependent Enrollment Form. This plan covers most employees of the state of Alaska. I believe this plan most likely covered the Palins.
SELECT BENEFITS HEALTH DEPENDENT ENROLLMENT FORM
When you begin work in a health-eligible position, you must list any dependents to be covered on a “Health Dependent
Enrollment form.” Please complete this form and return it to the Division of Retirement and Benefits. If your dependents
later change due to marriage, meeting or ceasing to meet the eligibility requirements for same-sex partner status, divorce,
birth, or adoption, you must complete a “Health Dependent Change form” to add or delete dependents. Failure to complete
these forms when required may delay payment of claims for your dependents.
Visit the following link to view the entire form.
http://doa.alaska.gov/drb/forms/pdf/ben032.pdf
Since Sarah was sent the email below obviously the required form was not filed.
If the Palins had a birth certificate for Trig listing them as the parents and dated April 18, 2008 there would have been no reason for them not to send it to the Benefits Section as requested. Therefore, it’s my opinion that the Palins did not have a birth certificate containing the information that matched what had been publicly announced regarding the birth of Trig Palin. Furthermore, I think it’s highly likely that they still don’t have such a document because the real parent(s) have not allowed Sarah and Todd to adopt the child being presented to the world as Trig Palin.
While I am on the subject of birth certificates, I have a question for any readers who have been involved in a child custody case. Did you have to show your child’s birth certificate when filing for custody during a separation or divorce? This information could be relevant to whether or not the truth has been told about Tripp’s birth.
You can email me from the link at the bottom of this post.
Thanks!
Blade
*********************************************
Back in 2008, then Governor Sarah Palin received the email shown below.
The first email was forwarded to Todd who sent the following reply.
So what do these emails tell us? They tell us that over a month after Trig Palin was supposedly born to Sarah and Todd Palin they still hadn’t added him to their state sponsored health insurance plan and Todd’s reaction was to call the benefits department. Or so he claims.
It seems strange that a newborn with Down Syndrome wouldn’t have been added right away since health problems are common in children with Down Syndrome.
Let’s take a look at the policy for maternity and newborn coverage. I have also included the policy on covering dependents. While I can’t be certain that this is the policy which Sarah would have been covered by I think it’s reasonable to believe the coverage would have been similar to this.
Pregnancy
Pregnancy and childbirth are covered like any other medical
condition as long as you are covered under the medical plan.
No pre-existing conditions limitations are applied.
Coverage is provided for a hospital stay for childbirth for at
least 48 hours following a normal delivery or 96 hours following
a cesarean delivery.
47
Pregnant women may get screening for high-risk pregnancy
factors and receive special counseling about those risks. If you
are pregnant, call the claims administrator as soon as possible
for advice and counseling on having a healthy pregnancy. A
nurse consultant will assess the risk factors in your pregnancy
and discuss ways to reduce them with you, as well as provide
ongoing monitoring and evaluation. The nurse can also provide
educational materials, nutritional analysis and ongoing
support.
If you are totally disabled as a result of a pregnancy problem
and your coverage ends, you may be eligible for extended
benefits. See Continued Health Coverage on page 95. Totally
disabled means the complete inability of an individual to
perform everyday duties appropriate for your employment, age
or sex. The inability may be due to disease, illness, injury, or
pregnancy. The plan reserves the right of determination of
total disability based upon the report of a duly qualified physician or physicians chosen by the plan.
Newborn Care
Newborn care provided within the first 72 hours after birth is
covered. This includes nursery charges, physician’s services
and other routine care for a newborn child and is limited to 72
hours following the birth. Newborn services provided after 72
hours are not covered.
Charges for a newborn who has suffered an accidental injury,
illness, premature birth or other abnormal condition are covered like any other medically necessary services.
Addendum to page 47—Newborn Care
Effective 7/01/2008
Well Baby Care
Effective July 1, 2008, the Select Benefits active employee AlaskaCare health plan will cover outpatient routine examinations and screenings, including immunizations, for dependents from birth through 24 months of age according to the current American Association of Pediatrics (AAP) published guidelines in effect on the date of service. Coverage
is 100% of the recognized charge, without deductible being assessed for these services.
Dependents
Your eligible dependents for health insurance benefits
include:
• Your spouse. You may be legally separated but not
divorced.
• Your children from birth up to 23 years of age only if they
are:
— your natural children, stepchildren, foster children
placed through a State foster child program, legally
adopted children, children in your physical custody and
for whom bona fide adoption proceedings are underway,
or children for whom you are the legal, courtappointed
guardian;
— unmarried and chiefly dependent upon you for support;
— living with you in a normal parent-child relationship;
➣ This provision is waived for natural/adopted children
of the employee who are living with a divorced
spouse, assuming all other criteria is met.
➣ Only stepchildren living with the employee more
than 50% of the time are covered under this plan.
— in addition, if they are between the ages of 19 and 23,
they must be attending school regularly on a full-time
or half-time basis.
5
Children incapable of employment because of a mental or
physical incapacity are covered even if they are past the
maximum age. However, the incapacity must have existed
before age 19 and the children must continue to rely chiefly
on you for support and meet the definition of children,
except for age. You must furnish the claims administrator
evidence of the incapacity, proof that the incapacity existed
before age 19 and proof of financial dependency. Children
are covered as long as the incapacity exists and they meet
the definition of children, except for age. Periodic proof of
the continued incapacity may be required.
When you are hired, you must list any eligible dependents to
be covered on a Group Health Plan Enrollment Form. If your dependents change due to marriage, divorce or other family
status changes or when your children are no longer eligible,
you must complete a Group Health Plan Change Form to add or
delete dependents. These forms are available from your human
resources office, the division or its web site. Failure to
complete these forms when required may delay payment of
health claims for your dependents.
If more than one family member is covered under a State of
Alaska health plan, each eligible family member may be covered
by this program both as an employee and as a dependent,
or as the dependent of more than one employee.
Addendum to page 4—Dependents
Effective 01/01/2007
Dependents eligible for health insurance benefi ts is amended to include:
• Same-sex partner as defi ned and documented by 2 AAC 38.010 - 2 AAC 38.100.
• Eligible child of same-sex partner as defi ned and documented by 2 AAC
38.010-2 AAC 38.100.
Effective 01/01/2010
Dependents eligible for health insurance benefi ts is revised as follows:
• Your spouse. You may be legally separated but not divorced.
• Your children from birth up to 23 years of age only if they are:
− your natural children, stepchildren, foster children placed through a State foster child program, legally adopted children, children in your physical custody and for whom bona fi de adoption proceedings are underway, orchildren for whom you are the legal, court-appointed guardian;
− unmarried and chiefly dependent upon you for support;
− living with you in a normal parent-child relationship;
» this provision is waived for natural/adopted children of the employee who are living with a divorced spouse, assuming all other criteria is met.
» Only stepchildren living with the employee more than 50% of the time are covered under this plan.
− Attending school regularly on a full-time or half-time basis if they are between the ages of 19 and 23. If a physician certifies they are unable to attend school due to a serious medical condition, coverage may be continued for up to one year from the date they left school, or until they fail to meet the
criteria of a dependent child.
The above information is from the Select Benefits book for the State of Alaska. It is dated 2000 and has updates to the policy up to 2010. The entire booklet can be viewed at this link.
http://doa.alaska.gov/drb/ghlb/select/pdf/s_bw.pdf
So if this plan is indeed the one covering the Palins at the time Trig was supposedly born then he would have been covered automatically for seventy-two hours. The coverage Trig received to begin with didn’t require the birth certificate so the Palins didn’t have to worry about that at the time. For subsequent medical treatment Trig may have been taken to Alaska Native Medical Center which only requires a Certificate of Indian Blood which Todd was probably able to obtain with no problem.
That call he supposedly made to the benefits department might have went like this.
“Alaska State Benefits Department. How may I help you?”
“This is Todd Palin. You know the Governor’s husband. About that birth certificate for Trig…uhhh Sarah and I have decided to use the Native Medical Center for his medical care so we won’t be sending that.”
CLICK!
I don’t think that Sarah and Todd have a birth certificate for Trig because they aren’t his parents. Trig may not even be the real name of the child being called Trig. That would explain why they refuse to show that document. That boy’s birth certificate has his real name, his parents real names and his real date of birth.
Blade
