I only belonged to the postal union to use their medical plan. My agency had its own union to negotiate benefits and salaries, and defend people with employment issues. I didn’t have to belong to that. We had a lot of health plans to pick from, but I really liked the postal union plan. The government dental was not very good, but my agency offered MetLife and it was expensive for the top plan but worth it to me - braces, wisdom teeth, many many crowns. Like I said, even though I paid the entire premium, we couldn’t continue after our offices were closed.
Is he in a Medicaid expansion state?
COBRA and vision insurance are most certainly subject to COBRA. I am an employee benefits attorney in real life, not just on Google, so I am confident of this answer. All “group health plans,” and for this purpose, dental and vision are group health plans, are subject to COBRA.
To the OP, though–assuming your friend is on his mother’s coverage through her employment, he is entitled to COBRA when he comes off at 26 (and MOST plans cover kids until the end of the month in which they turn 26, because the ACA mandate for dependents applies through that date). If there is going to be a short gap in his coverage, though, he may be able to manipulate the COBRA election a bit so that he can elect it retroactively if he needs it and not if he does not. Here is what I mean: an employer has up to 44 days to notify the son of his COBRA rights. Once they do so, the son has 60 days to elect COBRA. His 60 days does not start running until the date they send or he receives the notice (I don’t remember which–the notice usually gives the deadline). The son waits until the sixtieth day to elect. THEN, he has 45 days to make the first payment. If he makes that payment (and it will be a doozy because it is retroactive to the date of the loss of coverage), there is no gap in coverage. As you can see, he is now at a minimum of 105 days after the loss of coverage, possibly up to 149 days. If the son has not had any claims during this period, he just does not pay and forfeits his right to COBRA. If he has been run over by a truck in the interim, of course, he pays, or someone finds the money to pay. If he has cancer or some other serious health condition, his health provider (a hospital, for instance) may even pay the premium. I’ve also heard but not personally seen that Medicaid in some states will pay COBRA premiums for high-cost individuals.
Make sure his Mother verifies when he will fall off her plan. My employer drops kids off parents health insurance the day they turn 26.
Another thing to check. Many of the individual plans are HMO type plans…and don’t provide coverage outside of the state in which they are issued. If he goes to college in a different state than where his family resides, he might need to look at plans in that state…but that requires residency in THAT state.
Really, for all practical purposes, he should enroll in is college health insurance plan now.
Younwill need to look at the provisions of the college plan…and find out when THAT will end. Some end the end of the month of graduation.
Once he loses that plan, he can either hopefullynhave a job with benefits…OR purchase an individual plan at that time (losing the previous insurance is currently a “qualifying event” which would allow him to purchase an individual policy outside of the open enrollment period).
@MaineLonghorn, we have a young adult living and working abroad enrolled in that country’s national health. Our YA obtains travel insurance when leaving the resident country to insure coverage and compliance with US law. Travel insurance is offered through the national insurance carriers. If kid returns to the US, thus would considered a life event and kid would be eligible to obtain insurance in the US outside of the enrollment period.
We paid for private ObamaCare compliant insurance for one of the kids whose unemployed status left only Meficaid as an option. Kid needed a procedure and found that the hospitals in our area didn’t accept the private BlueCross plan. If you purchase anything, check that it actually is usable.
@Momofadult, thanks for the info. S is returning at Christmas (hooray!) and I bought him travel insurance. It won’t cover his bleeding disorder, so I told him not to get into any accidents and bleed!