OLATHE, Kan. — Cries of laughter and joy echo within the Kjelshus household in Olathe, Kansas. Mikkel and Kayla are the proud parents of two young children. Their daughter, Charlie, is creative with a big imagination. Teddy, a toddler, is already showing interest in sports.
“The best part [of fatherhood] is when you see your kids for the first time in the day or in the afternoon after school,” Mikkel said. “It’s a lot of fun to see how excited they are to see you.”
Mikkel’s entry to fatherhood wasn’t easy. Charlie required a stay in the neonatal intensive care unit [NICU] immediately after her birth.
“That first night was extremely tough,” Mikkel explained not being able to hold his first-born child after her birth. “We just cried through it.”
After a week in the NICU, doctors released baby Charlie with a clean bill of health. Now 4-years-old, the little girl remains healthy.
Mikkel and Kayla were shocked to get roughly $270,000 in bills once they got home. Collections agency began calling every day as the family looked for answers.
While married, Kayla and Mikkel have different health insurance plans. Kayla’s health insurance had a low deductible and covered most expenses. Mikkel’s plan had a $12,000 deductible and required many out-of-pocket expenses. So they wanted Kayla’s insurance to cover Charlie’s NICU visit.
A rule many states follow commonly commonly called the “birthday rule” assigns the child’s health care costs from their first 30 days of life to the insurance of the parent whose birthday is first in the calendar year.
Mikkel’s birthday is December 12, Kayla’s is December 31. So the rule automatically assigned Charlie to Mikkel’s high deductible insurance because his birthday comes before Kaylas in the calendar year. If Kayla was born one day later, January 1, the rule would’ve assigned Charlie to her health care plan like the family wanted.
“We have healthcare, we have jobs, we pay for it, then there’s just an internal, essentially an internal bickering between healthcare providers on what pays the bill,” Mikkel said.
Proponents of the rule like the National Association of Insurance Commissioners say the rule provides uniformity and efficiency for these circumstances. Both Kansas and Missouri use the birthday rule to coordinate benefits.
After more than a year of back and forth between hospitals and insurance companies, the Kjelshus family resolved the bill. Now, U.S. Representative Sharice Davids wants to pass a federal rule giving parents choice like the Kjelshus’ wanted.
“My bill aims to fix the arbitrary nature of the birthday rule,” Davids said.
The congresswoman who represents Olathe in Washington D.C., first introduced the Empowering Parents Healthcare Choices Act in 2021. It did not progress through the process. She reintroduced the bill this June and is hopeful it will lead to changes.
“Being able to make that decision for yourself instead of having an arbitrary rule decide for you, in my view, can make a difference for a lot of families if we are able to change this birthday rule form the standard to letting the parents choose which insurance plan is the standard,” Davids said.
Kjelshus is hopeful the act passes congress this time.
