<p>One of the reasons why many questions will go unanswered for some time, is because the law provides that regulations will define how the law will be implemented and how coverage will work. These regulations have not yet been drafted.</p>
<p>When I spoke with an HR attorney yesterday, he mentioned that for many employers, the change won’t take place in six months from the signing of the legislation. Instead, employers will have to incorporate the changes into their policies effective as of the next open enrollment period after the six-month date for their coverage. I’m not certain whether he was right or wrong.</p>
<p>Many companies are now considering (to the extent not already in place, which it is at many companies) offering graduated family premiums for their health plans. In other words, you would pay one premium for the employee and his or her spouse, that premium plus for the employee, spouse and one child, that premium plus plus for the second child, etc., so that each child up to some maximum number of children costs the employee more. I suppose at some level (at the companies I know of it is at 3+ and 4+ children), the premium maxes out and the employee need not pay any more. This is deemed to be more fair to those employees with only one or two children, instead of spreading the cost of insuring large families among all employees.</p>
<p>I think that the open enrollment period is similar to creating a
contract and I don’t think that you want legal changes to wipe out or
alter existing contracts. It seems reasonable to make the changes during
the next open enrollment period for those already employed.</p>
<p>Now employers typically have some kind of family change process to
move dependents in or out so that aspect may still be implemented in
six months.</p>
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<p>We already do that.</p>
<p>This is most fair to single people or those with no dependents. Single
people tend to be younger (my experience) and already help the insurance
costs of companies but they were also getting a smaller benefit from
health insurance compared to those with dependents.</p>
<p>does anyone know if the premiums will increase if you are over the 23 yo mark or whatever? I know that the states my parents work in (NY and NJ) already have similar provisions, but the cost of staying on my parents insurance after 23 was a decent amount more than just the cost of the family plan (something like the taxable benefit)</p>
<p>That makes sense to me. This doesn’t affect me right now but it might in a year as our son is planning on going to grad school. If plans change and he gets a job, then it will probably be a non-issue. Basically we get the companies group purchasing power but we still have to cover the costs of healthcare as the company certainly shouldn’t have to.</p>
<p>Is this group a loss for the insurance companies? It would seem they would rather keep them than for them to do what most kids that age do - go without any coverage or go into a very high deductible plan with another company. Why isn’t this a coveted group to keep on - even as dependents? I know it’s not a coveted group if premiums are fixed as they are for the federal government - one price for an individual and one price for a family, regardless of the number of children. That should have been changed a long time ago.</p>
<p>Our company self-insures and my guess is that we probably don’t want
the extra administrative costs associated with additional people if we
don’t have to incur them and if parents aren’t demanding the benefit.
That said, could companies that self-insure turn insuring adult
dependents into profit centers or use them to reduce overall rates for
their employee populations? I guess a lot of people are thinking about
these issues today.</p>
<p>What do young adults cost in medical care? If they’re working and/or
supporting a family, my guess is that they are living relatively
healthy lifestyles. Adult children that aren’t working might be more
expensive to insure if they are living unhealthy lifestyle - having a
lot of time on your hands can lead to unhealthy lifestyles.</p>
<p>If you have a company with a lot of professional parents, then most
of these families will send their kids to college and they’ll get
jobs, many with health insurance so it wouldn’t be an issue. These
are the adults that you want. If you have a company with a lot of
employees with adult children with no education and no job, then the
risk pool may not be as desirable.</p>
<p>I think that we will see some degree of cherry-picking and that
premiums will have to go up for some companies and down for others. It
depends on the insurance costs of the adult children of employees. I
can imagine all of the research proposals going forth to study this
area.</p>
<p>Ahem…my child is ON my plan now. Does this mean that she stays on and a determination is made during the next open enrollment period which is by June 30th?</p>
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<p>This is exactly the question I asked. Most are healthy and not taxing the self insured employers pay out anyway. So…what is the beef if the parent WISHES to continue to pay a family plan to keep them on the policy?</p>
<p>The most annoying thing to ME is that we have PAID for a family plan all premium paid until September 1. Yet the month of my kid’s graduation (before September), she will not be covered. But then Sept 23…she “might” be able to be covered again (if the self insured employers are not allowed to opt out).</p>
<p>You know…I PAY for family coverage. It’s a higher premium than for a two person plan. The district has many years of no claims from this soon to be college grad in their self insurance pool of money. This year she had a claim for the first time EVER for something beside a well care visit.</p>
<p>And one more RANT. My son has an individual policy. It has a $1500 deductible which he likely will never reach. So far ALL of his medical costs have been paid out of pocket. His premium went up 30% in January because the company claimed they had too many claims and needed to raise the rates. HELLO…the COMPANY did NOT pay my kid’s medical costs…HE DID. I realize he’s in a “group” of young individual policy holders and others may have claims…but most folks in the 23-30 year bracket are healthy and will not exceed their deductibles…and the companies would be paying a dime.</p>
<p>thumper…I think I have the same question. Our son is enrolled in our plan now. He graduates in May. Open Enrollment isn’t until October for Nov 1 renewal. Do we need to contact the company or the health plan now about the graduation? If we don’t will they not cover him if they found out he graduated? THE SPD says 24 or graduation, whichever comes first. Confusing! I have NO idea if the company’s plans are self insured.</p>
I’m not certain either. My open enrollment period is in late October/early November. Yet the plan allowed students to lose coverage (under previous law) in the month in which they graduate, which is usually May. (In the interest of full disclosure, my d is Class of 2011, so the effective date isn’t that much of a concern to me, but whether my self-insured employer will be required to cover her if she doesn’t get a job with insurance is of significant concern.)</p>
<p>Most plans have provisions for changing policies or options in the case of significant life changes; they can’t stop you from going to a family plan because your baby was born in February and open enrollment ended in November.</p>
<p>I tend to believe that they will consider the change in the law to be a similar “significant life change.”</p>
<p>Where I work, the student is bumped off the plan at the end of his/her graduation month, at which time COBRA can be used to continue coverage on the parent’s plan.</p>
<p>The new coverage for adult children is not mandated until 6 months after the law was signed.</p>
<p>Toneranger, I think it would be prudent to contact your comp and benefits office to determine the rules currently in effect.</p>
<p>Don’t forget that you have 60 days (or something like that) to elect COBRA and it is retroactive. That means, if the kid gets coverage within 60 days and no medical expenses have been incurred, you can just not pay the COBRA. </p>
<p>I have the same situation- a May graduate who will have to come off of our company’s self-funded plan at that time. He is starting his job in August and I think there may be a 60 day waiting period until his health benefits start. I would love to keep him on our plan.</p>
<p>I would not be surprised if companies say thay have to “update their system to accomodate changes” or something along those lines, that would mean their system isnt able to enter policy changes when the new bill goes into effect in 6 mo.</p>
<p>MOWC, if you are concerned about “continuity of coverage” for purpose of insurability, wouldn’t you have to pay? (I know the new law is supposed to fix that, but I am always cautious)</p>
<p>A lot of companies use prepackaged software or outsourcing to handle their HR functions. Most companies don’t want to reinvent the wheel over and over and over again when you can just have someone else do it. So I think that getting the big software vendors to update their software is the way to go. Still, they have to figure out the changes, run their testing process and then go through release management. That’s not necessarily a fast process.</p>
<p>Yes, there would be the continuity of coverage issue. Many companies/plans don’t ding you on that unless you have been uninsured for a greater period of time.</p>
<p>So my DD graduated in 2008 and now works a job with a health plan. She is considering going to grad school. Two questions: a) if she is 26 or under, can she go back on our plan after having had a period of not being on it and b) is grad school like undergrad school in that they provide a health plan for all students unless you opt out? And if you have a pre-existing condition as a young adult/student, when will it go into effect that you can get insurance without being discriminated against? I’ve read conflicting reports on this – everything from “now” to “2014”.</p>
<p>Re 60 versus 90 days for COBRA – do remember that if you have a pre-existing condition and go past 63 days without insurance, you can get excluded when you get a job.</p>