I hope you don’t mind my asking this on the forum. It’s just that I always get such good answers to my questions from knowledgable people here I would like advice from those in the know.
Our son graduated college and found a job where he has health insurance. We do not know what the laws or rules are regarding keeping your kids on your own health insurance until they are 26 years old. Do we continue to carry him on ours “in case” his job is downsized or cut and he no longer has the insurance? Is it legal to carry him on our health insurance when he has his own? We have health insurance through my husband’s employer. If we dropped our son from our insurance but needed to add him at a later date (before he turns 26), is that possible to do? Son is currently on our insurance for this year.
Congratulations to your son!! A job with benefits! Woohoo!!
I’m not a health insurance expert…but we did deal,with some of this.
DD graduated and went into the Peace Corps where she had full medical coverage. So…we discontinued her from DH’s plan. When she came back, she had coverage for a short time through PC…but that ended. When it ended, that was considered a “qualifying event” and we were able to put her back on DH’s plan with no problem. She was on that plan until her 26th birthday when she purchased an individual plan from a company.
So…here is my read on it. Your son has coverage. He might be required to take that. If so…he takes it. If he is laid off from his job, you should be able to add him back on your plan IF he is still under 26.
You also need to check your husband’s plan. My DH’s plan was clear. If the dependent kids had insurance through their own employers, they were not able to be continued on his plan.
If your son loses his job, this would be a qualifying event, and he would also be able to purchase health insurance through the ACA exchange.
You can drop him once he starts working (his employment is a qualifying event) and save money (with two insurances his will be the first and yours would only kick in as secondary). If he should lose his job/insurance - this will count as a qualifying event and you can put him back on yours.
Yes, your insurance company likely will require that you drop him if he has employer healthcare of his own available. You can pick him back up if he loses that, or he can purchased insurance – my youngest gets hers through our state’s Blue Cross providers for $205 per month for a Gold level (very good coverage) plan, but costs vary by state.
would your husbands company want to take him off and than put him back on if needed? also he should have a COBRA option at his new job if his relationship with his current employer is terminated.
the only situation I dealt with that got complicated was we had a child of an employee on our insurance, she got married (still ok to be on mothers policy) got pregnant still covered…baby was born…insurance covered birth and than terminated her. you can not be married and have a child and still be covered on parents policy. (who knew)
IMO your son should take the stronger all around policy and risk not getting back on dad’s policy if your son is being offered a better policy. if your husbands policy is “stronger” keep him covered on your husbands policy as long as possible.
cobra is 100% actual cost plus administration fees. but it is an option. and companies do not need to offer health insurance to a dependent only the employee.( I assume that if dependent coverage is offered they would need to take them back…but I am not certain)
For times between jobs, even Medicaid may be an option (just mentioning for those parents without a good plan to put their under 26 kids on). Those over 18 can be considered his or her own “household.” It depends on income and also whether the state expanded Medicaid or not.
If the kid has a job with income above Medicaid limits, then the marketplace plans offered by the Affordable Care Act help. Again, this is for those whose parents do not have insurance for the family or are on Medicaid or ACA plan themselves.
I have a friend who didn’t want to take a job because it didn’t offer health insurance. He is a well-educated smart person but did not even realize he could get insurance through the ACA marketplace.
One of my kids has a private plan purchased directly through Anthem in her state. Great POS, with good coverage…$275 a month.
Other kid has a HMO individual plan purchased through the exchange in his state. Not great coverage…but all of the individual plans in his state both in and off exchange are now HMO plans. His cost…$275 a month…and that includes his subsidy.
We really wanted the exchange kid to get an individual plan directly from a company…but the cost was not favorable in his state.
Still…$275 a month is likely going to be cheaper than cobra…because cobra will be based on what the company pays for all emplyees…not just this twenty something.
it is true cobra will be more but , cost is not the only factor. an obamacare plan could be cheaper but have a tiny number of doctors who want to see you as a patient and deductibles that are off the charts. the best choice is normally employer policies, 2nd best direct purchase and last choice is the exchange policy. if you just need coverage to avoid the fine obamacare will be best. but if you ever need to use that coverage, it will be less than ideal. (even on the more expensive exchange plans)
My sons company offers a health care plan but we’ve chosen to keep him on ours as it doesn’t cost us anymore money and the money we would pay for his company’s plan he is putting into his 401k. Once he turns 26 he will sign up for his company’s plan (if he is still there.) He is only 22 so will be able to put a lot of money into his 401k from not having to pay for insurance for 4 years.
That is something to consider - if you are currently on a family plan and have several children you save nothing on your premiums by removing one of them - if removing your only child on the plan moves your premiums to be couple only which is lower than family then it saves you money
@zobroward, that is horse puckey. Under ACA, you can buy a plan from any company, and all must offer the ACA protections. My kid has had plans with two different Blue Cross carriers with access to the entire BCBS network of doctors. Cost for 21 year old is $205/month in our state, while COBRA would be $575/month – copays and defuctibles are better on the BCBS plan than our COBRA, too. Your talking points are outdated and wrong.
D1 had a good paying job with full benefit when she graduated. At the time, my insurance coverage was better than hers and it was more economical for her to be on my insurance. More economical meant we had the same family deductibles with or without D1 on the plan and I was already paying for a family plan. D1 stayed on my insurance until she turned 26. Once she turned 26, I had to drop her from my insurance, which was a “qualifying event.” It enabled her to get back on her company’s health insurance as soon as I had to drop her from my plan.
D2 is 21 now and still a student. Her school insurance is $1100 for 8 months (until she graduates)a and has $150 deductible. I am a single person now, with just me on my company’s plan it is $120/mon with $750 deductible, but if I were to insure D2 on my plan, my premium would go up to $240 and $1500+ deductible. With some calculations I determined it was more economical to have D2 be on her school plan. When her plan terminates in Aug, it will be a “qualifying event,” and I will be able to add her back on my company plan until she turns 26, unless she gets a job or has a graduate school health plan that’s more economical than mine.
One caviar to this whole thing is, some insurance WILL NOT cover your daughter’s pregnancy if she is on your plan. In that case, you may want to have your kid on her own insurance plan.
zobroward said “you can not be married and have a child and still be covered on parents policy. (who knew)”
Yes you can, but the child (the grandchild) is not covered. A husband and wife both under 26 can be on their own parents’ policies, but a SIL or DIL cannot be added to yours.
To the OP, if it saves you money to drop your son, do it. If it doesn’t, then keep him on and as someone else said, yours will become secondary insurance or might pay for some things that the primary insurance doesn’t. My brother had two policies, one through a sport he played. His main insurance paid for most things, but the secondary one picked up some of the equipment for an injury that the first didn’t. It also covered some of the deductible as the second policy was very small, $25k I think, but had no deductible. Helpful to have.
Since there is absolutely no such thing as an “Obamacare” or ACA plan, I’m just going to assume you have no idea what your talking about. (Which is a good assumption based on the rest of your post.)
This is getting a little off topic…but in terms of coverage…each state is different.
My one kid had a HMO Anthem plan here in CT with a VERY rich network of doctors. That plan paid about $100,000 maybe more for an injury she had last spring. No problems with coverage, Doctor,selection or the like. And we were looking at a very specialized doctor…no problem at all.
My other kid has a HMO in a different state. His doctor network is very limited.
This all has NOTHING to do,with the ACA…and everything to do,with what indifferent companies are willing to broker. In my son’s state, all of the individual plans on and off exchange are HMO plans. But I know that at least he will have coverage for catastrophic events (like his sister had). And his RX coverage is terrific,which for him is important.
Parents are not required to remove kids from their plan when they their employers provide insurance.
I am not sure whether the kids can have double coverage though. I did not see anything that does not allow double coverage in my employer plan policy and in my kid’s employer plan policy.
Maybe that was a change under the ACA. I know that when we had family coverage prior to the ACA, our insurance company sent us regular letters requiring us to confirm that no one on our family plan was eligible for any other insurance through an employer. We got these letters at least twice a year. But it is possible that that has changed.