Health Insurance for kid with uncertain plans

Parent Cafe
1

I am wondering how cc’ers are handling health insurance for young adult kids whose plans are up in the air. We need to purchase health insurance on the Exchange for DH, myself and DS. DS will graduate from college in May and hopes to attend grad school in the fall, but we have no idea where he will end up. It’s possible he will be in our city.

Do we find a plan for the three of us or select a plan for DH and me and do DS’s plan separately? If he ends up out of our immediate area, would he qualify for special enrollment? What if he’s in our state but a couple hundred miles away? Will he have to change his legal residence to qualify for special enrollment?

I am so stressed out about the poor options that were available to us for 2018 that I haven’t even found the guts to look at the 2019 options.

I’d be grateful for any insight or anecdotes about how you’ve handled this and how it has worked out.

2

Yes, your son will qualify for special enrollment if & when he changes residence. Ideally his legal residence should be where he is actually living — but he probably doesn’t have to do anything to establish that residence other than to supply the insurance company or exchange with his address.

If he is going to be in one place over the summer and somewhere else for grad school (such as in connection with an internship) – he can also look at short-term coverage.

If you have an exchange policy for the you, yourself and your son – you will be able to drop coverage for your son any time, so you can go ahead and buy the insurance now and then make whatever changes are appropriate in May.

3

Thank you, calmom. That is very helpful.