<p>Our son graduated from college last May and THANKFULLY began a full-time job August 1. He was offered and signed up for health insurance through his new employer. </p>
<p>I knew that under the new Health Care Reform bill, my son could stay on our insurance until age 26 if he NEEDED to. BUT we had assumed if my son was eligible for coverage under his own employer, we’d have to take him off our insurance. However, when he got his own insurance we did not bother to notify my husband’s benefits dept or our insurance company to take him off of our plan because we pay for “family” coverage - it doesn’t matter how many kids we have, it’s the same premium. We figured we’d take him off of our insurance at the end of the year, during open enrollment.</p>
<p>But today my son found out a new co-worker declined their company’s health insurance because he was under his parents’ family plan.</p>
<p>Apparently, the limits on who can stay on their parents’ plan vary by state (some states are more generous than the Federal government’s minimum requirements). We live in Massachusetts, our son now lives in NJ and works in NYC. Looking for Massachusetts’ rules, I found this info from the Boston Public Health Commission:</p>
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<p>We have already determined that our son qualifies as our IRS dependent for 2011 (because we paid his college tuition and living expenses for 7 months). So am I right in assuming we can keep him on our insurance until the end of 2013, when he will be 24? And am I also right in assuming that the laws that apply in this case are Massachusetts laws, since that’s where my husband’s plan originates? </p>
<p>If yes, that’s great. He can drop out of his company’s plan and save paying the premiums. We have a younger child in college until 2014 so we’ll have to keep paying a family premium anyway. But I’m scared for him to drop out of his company’s plan in case I’m wrong and he ends up with no health insurance.</p>
<p>BTW, my husband will check with his HR people on Monday to find out for sure if my son can stay on our plan. I was just wondering if anyone else knew anything about this - or realized your employed kids may not need to be paying for their health insurance right away.</p>
<p>I am checking on this in the next few days too. In our state, Anthem says they can be on the plan only if they do not have their own employer sponsored plan available. However, Anthem has been known to be lots less than truthful and forthcoming, so I’m looking it up…I would like to be positive the new job is working out before removing him from our insurance.</p>
<p>My understanding is that under the health care plan rules up until 2014 and for plans that already existed prior to the health care act, the child can stay on the parent plan only if their own job does not offer a health care plan they are eligible for. (I think the rules are different if it is a new health plan that came into existence after the health care act passed.)</p>
<p>So if your plan was already in existence and as your son’s job does offer a health care plan, he may not be eligible to stay on your plan.</p>
<p>My employed college grad is still on my Anthem family plan. Since he has been working for over a year, he no longer qualifies as a dependent. He receives a small rebate from his employer for declining their welfare benefits. We live in California and he works in the NE.</p>
<p>I’m hoping mine can stay on ours. She is employed in TX, we live in IN, work in IL. Her place of employment told her she could legally decline their insurance coverage and stay on ours. I’m trusting that she was told correctly.</p>
<p>Also during my employer’s open enrollment period I saw this quote. “If you do not want to make any changes, you do not need to do anything”. Well, that was enough for me.</p>
<p>Yes, your child can stay on your insurance plan, but why would you want him/her to do that? I get the “save the premiums” part, and I understand that money is a good thing, but so is responsibility for yourself.</p>
<p>The part that would concern me is what happens after he ages out of your insurance. Will his employer allow him to sign up for their insurance after previously declining it? Will he have an extra waiting period, or exclusions of any kind? Check that out before deciding.</p>
<p>skyhook has a good point…with some plans if the worker accepts the insurance as soon as eligible from the employer, there might not be a waiting period for pre existing conditions, however if they are considered a late enrollee, a waiting period may be assessed. If the previous health insurance is by the same company that may be waived. Waiting periods may vary from 6 to 18 months (any new problems of course are covered) Not all insurances have policies with waiting periods but that is something you should definitely find out before declining an employer offered plan</p>
<p>My '11 grad has a terrible health care plan with his employer in Asia. He stayed on my plan and we found doctors, hospitals and dentists who will take my plan over there.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone. My husband’s insurance is Aetna, and its a national plan that doesn’t require referrals. I’ve checked, and they have plenty of doctors in the NJ/NJ area. My son’s current health plan thru his employer is United Healthcare, but they’re switching to Signa. </p>
<p>Skyhook, my husband and I are also concerned about the potential for a problem in 2 years when Son would try to get back into his employer’s plan. I thought Health Care Reform did something about denying coverage for pre-existing conditions, but I didn’t think about a waiting period. Of course when I mentioned this to my son he said, “I don’t have any pre-existing conditions and I doubt I’ll have any in 2 years.” Not to be negative, but I don’t know of anyone who PLANS to develop a health issue! :p</p>
<p>dmd77, this is all about money and not about a lack of responsibility. My son will be managing his own healthcare: making his own doctor’s appointments, buying his own prescriptions, and paying his own deductibles and co-pays. If for some reason I get a bill for his medical care I’ll send it to him. But why should he pay nearly $100/month for a benefit he can get through us for free?</p>
<p>This has a good explanation of the rules regarding when children can remain on their parent plans. It says that until 2014, some plans that existed before the passing of the act do not have to allow kids to stay on the plan if they have an offer of health insurance from their own employee.
I’m guessing that as several posters say their kids have been able to stay on their insurance despite having an offer of insurance through their own jobs, some companies implemented the rule voluntarily or they are not part of the “certain plans” that do not have to implement it till 2014 - I am not sure what the criteria is for that). Definitely something each person should check with their own company plan. The fact that child does not have to be claimed as a dependent and can even be married which is good news for us as my daughter is getting married next year and I suspect she will not have her own insurance. </p>
<p>My son did go off our plan and onto his company’s in January. I did not think he was eligible to stay on ours as he has excellent insurance through his own job. I was so excited and relieved that he had found a well paying job with medical benefits and it never crossed my mind he could stay on our plan. I don’t think we will mess with it now though. He turns 26 next year anyway.</p>
There was some pre-existing condition reform from HIPAA back in the 90’s.</p>
<p>IIRC, if you were previously covered by insurance for a period longer than the pre-existing condition exclusion, the new insurance cannot have a waiting period.</p>
<p>You can always add or change insurance during the employer’s open enrollment period. In addition, if you have a “life event” you can add or change insurance at that time. One of the life events is losing coverage from another group plan. So whenever your kid is no longer eligible to be under the parents’ insurance, he can jump on to his employer’s policy at that time with no waiting periods or pre-existing condition exclusions.</p>
<p>Many companies will pay you if you don’t go on their health insurance. So if you can stay on your parents’ policy for free, you can make money on it.</p>
<p>Is your son’s open enrollment happening now? If his window for enrollment is now closed, he may be stuck with the company’s plan. After open enrollment ends, typically, one can only change a benefit selection if there’s been a qualified life change. I don’t think changing his mind counts.</p>
After we took our son off our insurance, we got some sort of certificate from them saying he had been covered continuously for xx period of time. I think that was to do with this rule.</p>
<p>^^^the certificate of creditable coverage is what you are talking about… that needs to be given to the HR person when enrolling…there can not be a significant gap in coverage and also there are a few little glitches…ie if you were covered under an individual policy and are changing to a group policy…sometimes the pre-existing period is still applied. An insurance company wont be able to DENY coverage for a pre-existing condition but a waiting period is not denial of coverage.</p>
<p>In my personal experience, Aetna is better than Cigna which is beter than UHC. But I agree with swimcatsmom- I thought they could stay on your plan only if their own employer did not offer a health benefit option.</p>
<p>His company did not ask for anything back in January when he enrolled. So I guess he is o.k. (doesn’t have any preexisting conditions anyway, so that probably makes a difference).</p>
<p>swimcat… i cant tell you how many people we see that when we run their insurance their policy has a waiting period…we automatically ask…did you receive a letter? yes!.. did you give it to your new insurance…no! usually a quick fix once they take the letter in…but i have yet to see one of those letters that tells you what to do with it :)</p>