<p>What a mix of systems! We’ve all been on DH’s insurance forever. Unfortunately, dependent coverage requires FULL-TIME student status. Not just under 25, not just a student, but full-time. So assuming that son doesn’t find a fab job with full benefits in the next month, we need to find him health care coverage.</p>
<p>Some options we (that means I) have looked into - 1)COBRA under current work policy - crazy expensive, 2)Move myself and son to my work policy, which allows dependents to age 25, even if they aren’t in school (still pretty darned expensive) and 3) private policy to cover a pretty healthy young man (so far this looks the cheapest).</p>
<p>What are you considering for your grads? For us doing nothing isn’t an option.</p>
<p>We are COBRA-ing – at a bare-bones level, dropping some features – a two-month gap between lost eligibility under my wife’s employment-based policy and the health insurance our child will get through work starting in September. A stand-alone policy would certainly have been cheaper, especially if we were going more than a couple of months. The coverage available at my workplace is so much more expensive than that available through my wife that we didn’t even investigate that possibility.</p>
<p>Everyone should understand that even if your child is healthy, doing nothing is a terrible option, because if there is any kind of significant gap in coverage pre-existing condition rules will kick in, and your child may never be able to get coverage for a problem that shows up now.</p>
<p>|One of my D’s had a Kaiser policy for her first year after college, before she got a job with benefits. Our second graduate is now on an Anthem Blue Cross PPO policy with a $3500 deductible but very good coverage after that. I consider it catastrophic health insurance and thankfully she hasn’t had to use it.</p>
<p>This is one reason we took out the school heath insurance with our son. He has a chronic condition that is very mild and cheap to control now but it may or may not get expensive in the future. His univ student insurance policy allows the policy to continue for 6 months after graduation at very cheap rates.</p>
<p>If we don’t see health care reform he will have to restrict his job to larger companies with heath care options or a state with high risk pools and state coverage. He is uninsurable in the present US health care mess with small business or private insurance.</p>
<p>We went through ehealthinsurance dot com to find policies for our two grads before employment coverage was obtained. It was way cheaper than the COBRA policies through H’s work. Work coverage continued until age 23 or the last day of the month of (continuous FT) undergrad graduation, whichever came later.</p>
<p>New job policy will drop our youngest at age 22 regardless of student status.</p>
<p>Our kids were dropped from our policy the day they graduated. Getting them their own policies was MUCH cheaper than COBRA. I recommend an HSA-qualified catastrophic policy. I don’t know what state you’re in, but our son’s high deductible policy costs only $49/month in California through Blue Cross. My D has a walk-in-care policy with Kaiser for about $120/month.</p>
<p>Both like having their own individual health insurance, as it has freed them to travel, take contract jobs, etc., since they don’t have to worry about needing health insurance. Getting your health insurance through work is a kind of trap.</p>
<p>I found the policies for them by googling the state name and the words “individual health insurance policy”.</p>
<p>Drizzit: your son should be able to continue his coverage as an individual policy as long as he has no gaps. You might want to consider buying him an individual policy now.</p>
<p>He has a Pre-Exisitng condition that is listed as uninsurable.</p>
<p>I know if he gets a job with group health care coverage there are no pre-exisitng stipulations if he has no gap in coverage. I don’t think that applies to individual plans. they don’t have to offer a policy even with no gaps.</p>
<p>Blue Cross automatically moved son to his own policy when he was 24 even though he was a F/T student. He has a high deductible ($3000) that we could cover if need be but his rates is as reasonable as it could be I suppose. No way he could pay his own insurance right now and I won’t leave him uninsured and I want to be able to help him choose docs and hospitals etc if need should arise. I think he is required by his school to have insurance through them as well and because his deductible is so high, he can’t waive out. So I guess he will be doubly insured as we don’t want him to have a gap as it would cost more to renew with BC.</p>
<p>I went with Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Blue Options for my soon to be 25 year old. Hopefully, he’ll get a job with health insurance within the next six months. But Consumer Reports says Cobra is the best.</p>
<p>DD’s COBRA with our PPO is supplemented by the govt so we pay only 35% of the single policy (about $150/month). Since she spent two days in the ER during her last qtr (at over $9000 per day – lots of tests, but no real diagnosis or treatment), we figured ANY price would be a bargain for the 2months she would need coverage before her new policy kicks in. Ask HR to add them to your plan on COBRA and make sure you ask for the subsidized rate.</p>
<p>My daughter finished her course work in December. We spoke with the insurance company and they said that she would be covered for six months or until
what would have been her graduation date. (She finished her work early.)</p>
<p>We found out in March that they were not going to cover her. </p>
<p>As mercedesfilles points out, the rules for ending coverage are different for everyone. Our girls were covered until their next birthday following graduation. Bummer that their birthdays were in July and September. In any case, it is important to check this out well in advance of graduation.</p>
<p>WE bought DS an individual Anthem BC/BS policy. He was covered under MY anthem family plan until after he graduated. He also has a preexisting condition, but we did NOT let his coverage lapse AND we rolled over into an individual plan with the same company. His is a PPO with a $1500 deductible and $2000 a year of prescription coverage. </p>
<p>If you have Anthem, inquire about TONIC…it’s much better coverage and includes both prescriptions and dental…and I think four office visits per year for $20 before the deductible of $1500 kicks in. </p>
<p>My understanding about Anthem is that even with a preexisting condition…if you stay with Anthem, and don’t let the coverage lapse, you have a good likelihood of getting individual coverage for your kiddo. </p>
<p>Don’t know if that is true for other insurance vendors but worth checking with whomever is covering you kiddos now.</p>
<p>I think Blue Cross spells it Tonik. And if you have a daughter, I’m pretty sure it doesn’t cover pregnancy, not that many of our young D’s are planning on that or anything.</p>