<p>Reviving this old thread to ask for some opinions.</p>
<p>D begins her job on Monday and will need to elect Health Care coverage. H’s employer offers a fairly rich (and cheap) benefits package. We will continue Family coverage since we need to cover H, myself and S regardless. D is allowed to remain on our policy:</p>
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<p>The only thing is, she is in MD and we are in CT. The list of in-network providers in her area is limited, to say the least (mostly Minute Clinics, etc). It’d be easy for her to schedule physicals, etc with providers here at home, but I worry about if/when she is actually sick and needs a Dr. in her area. </p>
<p>Hate for her to spend all the $$ for that coverage if she’s eligible to remain on ours…but want her to be safe…what would you guys do??</p>
<p>What is the company? My family has Anthem in CT and they allow them to fill out a form for “away from home coverage” that gives the family member a comparable plan in whatever state they are currently living in. So while I was in college in Massachusetts, I actually had two insurance cards – I had my Anthem card, which I could use out of network, and I had a Blue Cross card because they had effectively put me on my own BCBS of MA plan, which actually had cheaper copays than the Anthem. So if you have Anthem, they may do the same thing – I would check with your HR department.</p>
<p>The thing that would give me pause about continuing a child on our policy after they have a real job that offers good benefits is the possibility that it might be tough for the child to switch over to their own work policy at a later date, should they need to do so. I would have her check carefully with her HR people about any restrictions on joining their policy later if she does not do so immediately.</p>
<p>Is there a chance she will still be working for this firm in five years? What if you somehow lost your coverage? What if Obama’s health care legislation gets repealed, and along with it the requirement for insurers to cover kids till they are 26?</p>
<p>Just food for thought. Especially since it sounds like she has access to a great policy at work. Maybe you could keep her on your cell phone plan instead.</p>
<p>My d recently needed a short-term policy, which she obtained through [Short-term</a> health insurance for new college grads and alumni: GradMed](<a href=“http://www.gradmed.com%5DShort-term”>http://www.gradmed.com). She learned about it through her alumni association. There are 200-plus schools in this program. For about $130/month, she has a decent major medical policy. She was able to fine-tune it to her liking - different deductibles, 80/20 or 50/50 coinsurance, out-of-network providers, no referrals, etc. However, she only needed this for a few months and it’s a “just in case” kind of policy. </p>
<p>Would it not make sense for her to take the policy through her employer? Is the coverage for local doctors in her area that poor? It would seem more likely that she’d need to seek medical care where she’s living instead of going home to CT for care, even routine care.</p>
<p>Eireann, we also had anthem. While our kids were in college, they WERE able to have blue care which allowed them coverage in the state in which their college was located. That option is NOT available from CT anthem once the student has graduated…or at least that was the case with our plan.</p>
<p>We have Oxford, which is a sub of United. Just from a quick look online, YES, the coverage for doctors in her area is quite poor - the only thing I see is Minute Clinics (CVS) and Target Clinics. I’ll check into the additional coverage for those living out of the area. </p>
<p>It may make perfect sense for her to take her new employer’s coverage, although it would sure be nice for her to save the $$ if she is already eligible for our (good) plan.</p>
<p>I’d hesitate to have my kiddo rely on care from Minute Clinics. We have met some of the staff at them (when we took a 15 hour class with them that I paid for) and toured some of them and were VERY unimpressed with the management. We were also VERY concerned about the poor quality of the staff they hired – after they took the course, they had to be extensively re-tutored so that they could pass the course we had all completed. Our staff passed the course with no problems and no extra tutoring.</p>
<p>If her income is sufficient and the cost is as low as you say with great benefits, I’d lean toward having the kiddo get his/her own coverage. Actually, we are surprised that S didn’t get his own coverage when he started his job. </p>
<p>One thing to inquire about is how the coverages will work together. The child’s own coverage form employer would be primary and coverage as your kid would generally be secondary. H’s policy (which covers our employed 24-year-old S) says that it does NOT provide secondary coverage if S purchases another BCBS plan (which is what H’s plan is). It’s worth asking your insurers about, just to be sure you understand the benefits of having dual coverage (which can eliminate all co-pays with some companies).</p>
<p>Before S opted out of employer’s coverage, we made sure that he could see docs who were participating & preferred with BCBS (not Minute Clinic places). He still has NOT opted to see a doc in the time he’s lived in the East Coast, even tho I did the investigating & helped him find a doc there who sounded good, has great reviews and is accepting new BCBS patients. I still have the info & hope he will get around to seeing that doc.</p>
<p>Thumper, it is the case with ours since the healthcare bill. I’m staying on it until I am 26 due to a fairly big difference in this plan and what is available through my employer. It also doesn’t cost our family anything extra and I make pretty little (work for a non-profit) and I still have both plans. </p>
<p>I definitely would not have been able to remain on it without the health care bill. I graduated in 2010, and I think that allowing graduates to stay on the plan in May/June instead of waiting until September when the bill took effect was an Anthem decision and allowing away from home care as well was my father’s employer. I’m not sure what’s legally required at this point.</p>
<p>I have confirmed with my HR department that for my employer’s health plan, becoming removed from another health insurance is considered a qualifying event and therefore you can enroll whenever that happens and and don’t wait to wait until you an open enrollment period. I wanted to make sure that I didn’t have any issues with coverage gaps, especially living in MA.</p>
<p>It’s all so individual with both the employer and the company providing health insurance, though.</p>
<p>Eireann…YES you can stay on your parents plan, do not need to reside in the same state. BUT in some policies, this would only mean that you have in network coverage IF there are docs in your state who will take the plan. Blue Care, for college students, made it “like” they were residents of the state in which their college was located and they had in network coverage from docs in THAT state. If your policy allows that to continue after you graduate, that is terrific, but not all do.</p>
<p>I understand that is specifically what you are talking about. I currently have a current Anthem and a current BCBS of MA card. that is why I said to check with the employer, though, because it is such an individual issue. It’s a good option to look into if it’s there. If not, it’s probably with it to just get the employer insurance in this case.</p>
<p>Thanks to your advice I’ve looked harder into our plan documents and found that there is a fairly large national network that she should be able to access, including many providers in her area. I’ll touch base with Oxford on Monday to confirm.</p>
<p>HIMom, the low-cost great benefits are from H’s plan, not D’s. She hasn’t started yet and I don’t yet know the details on the cost/coverage of her employer’s plan. But I would almost guarantee that it’ll cost more than staying on ours (zero).</p>
<p>One more thing, try to get clarifications IN WRITING as to what is and is not covered if your working child is going to remain under your insurance, just to there is no confusion and you have something to show what was said down the road. It’s important to get clarifications directly from the insurance company because they would be the one to pay or deny claims for service.</p>
<p>H also has a great benefits, low cost plan for federal employees. S is also a federal employee but the plans where he lives aren’t quite as low cost (benefits not quite as good either) and of course it costs us nothing extra to keep him on our plan. Hope & believe he’s saving the premiums he’s not paying so he will have more options down the road.</p>