@megpmom that’s not true. That is ONLY true if you’re in an expansion state.
DS got his health insurance from his school. I heard it is like an HMO program. (He bought the insurance by borrowing more money or sometimes funded by bank of mom and dad in our “good” years.)
He has not been in our heath insurance policy for many years. (We had some troubles in securing our own health insurance in some years, before Obamacare.) He has never been in Medicaid even when he did not have income (in most years) or had very little income (in 2 years.)
Mcat…many colleges no longer offer health insurance because their plans were not ACA compliant.
@thumper1, Not sure whether his school’s plan is ACA compliant or not. It is in a presumeably “high standard” state, CT. On the healthcare provider’s side (i.e., the hospital, not the insurance conpany), it is a large one, especially after it acquired the other hospital in their city last year or so (?). I once heard it is likely the largest provider in that state, in terms of the number of beds.
I once read from some newspaper that the hospital is losing money because the state government reimbursed them too little money for each Medicaid or Medicare patient’s case. Also, the percentage of Medicaid patients (or Medicare? Not sure which one) is too high for their hospital. If it were not for the merge of these two hospital systems, they would have an even greater pressure to let go some of their employees in the hospital. They said they would try not to do that, but the outcome would depend on who are to be elected as their next governor(?) or something like that. This could be the story from one side though.
When S aged out he switched to his employer’s plan. I’d kept him on our plan until he turned 26 because, at the time, family coverage was one price and D is still on our policy. This year the pricing for family plan changed to take into account the number of “children” on the plan. For 3 people (self, spouse and D) my current premium, after employer contribution, exceeds $1100 a month. And that’s for a HSA plan where I pay 100% until I hit the $6000 deductible. Ugh.
S got his own through the ACA, D2 probably will do the same when the time comes (soon!).
Wow. I guess I would have been too embarrassed at 26 to remotely consider getting insurance through my parents. If you are 18 when you graduate HS, 22 when you graduate college and 24? when you finish grad school…only a very few children should be college students at 26.
Or better yet, work through grad school and pay your own way. When do you let them be adults? How will they cope when you die?
@dietz199, I found one (1) plan on the exchange that covers for out-of-state (not just ER) and is a PPO. It is a great plan. I am very pleased. The doctors are a more limited list, and I do screen for med school and internship to look for the lower 48 (and not the Caribbean). Overall, I have had very good results over the past 1-1/2 years, for OOS kids too! Let me know if you want the info. I can PM you.
It did take weeks with a broker in 2013 to find a suitable plan, since the information was not readily available (OOS coverage, PPO, certain docs, groups, and hospitals on the plan, etc.). Well worth the hassle.
Post #26, it’s free to be on family plan. Practical wins.
I hear you Torveaux. Unless there is a disability involved, at 26 years of age this is not going to be my problem anymore.
At age 26, the kiddos can’t be on the parent policy unless they are disabled.
But before age 26, they can stay on the plan. Group administered plans through employers provide much better coverage than the individual plans my kids have now.
I would scrub floors to make sure my kids have good health insurance coverage.
Then you tell them to figure it out. That is what you are doing, right?
Of course it is your prerogative to do the work for them, I will try not to judge. When my D turned 26, I told her to do it herself and she did (took the grad school coverage).
Oops I misread it. After 26, I will help search for the right plan, but kid needs to pay it.
Bay, there are some colleges that are no longer offering health care coverage because they could not offer ACA compliant plans.
You bet your bottom dollar I’d have stayed on my parents’ insurance until I am 26 if I had the option. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been an option as my parents are on Medicaid and Medicare.
Fwiw, my plan through the exchange is only about $80/month and it’s a very nice policy. However, I only have it for another two months and then I switch over to my school’s graduate insurance as it’s part of my PhD package. (Which, luckily, is an even better plan.)
My 21 year old son could go on his employer’s health insurance but we pay to keep him on ours because he has a number of medical conditions, one of which is serious, and we don’t want him making medical decisions based on a large deductible or huge copay. It’s well worth it to us to keep him on our plan as long as possible.
S1 stayed on our insurance until he was 26. COBRA to keep him on it past then was about $650 month, which wasn’t possible for any of us, we don’t live in a state with an exchange, ACA coverage was also expensive since he makes $1000 more a year than the cutoff for reimbursement (and I don’t trust the legislation to stay as is, anyway). So, he picked up his employer’s medical/dental which is about 15% of his takehome and he had to change dentists to one of those franchise walkins because the “coverage” wouldn’t cover any other place fully. The medical insurance “coverage” is also not very comprehensive but he can’t afford better, so he only sees a doctor for serious illness. We cover what his insurance won’t.
I find people who judge other people’s healthcare choices are those who have the ability to choose without regard to cost and forget that for a lot of us, “choice” is very narrow. Or, they’ve never had the need for continuing medical care, perhaps. S2 has enormous medical bills – 5 figures every year – and his insurance as an adult concerns me.We know that whatever his insurance might be, a starting salary can’t sustain the premium and the deductible and copay for that kind of treatment.
If that makes me a bad parent, so be it. I know that there’s nobody on CC who would watch their child die rather than help with expenses for care. Without meds and treatment, S2 would be dead, and even saving for a future that may not arrive is hard. //gets down off soapbox
I am curious about the following statement: “My 21 year old son could go on his employer’s health insurance but we pay to keep him on ours”. Do some employers/policies allow that? Mine requires me to drop my S/D when they turn 26 or when they get a job which offers insurance, whichever comes first.
When my kid turned 26 the ACA had not gone through yet and insurance companies could still deny you for preexisting conditions (which she has). We paid cobra at $750 a month and no dental. It was painful but thank god she couldn’t be turned down for the cobra.
ACA then became law and she was able to get an affordable plan.
We were able to lower her income by putting money into an IRA for her which helped increase her subsidies. At her income she was also given tax breaks for putting money in an IRA.
Wealthy people are able to play the tax game. As a low income kid she has had to learn to play the tax game too.
She works her butt off full time. Always has. But has never had a job that provided health care.
She has difficulty finding Dr.'s with her silver BCBS policy.
It infuriates me that medical care is determined by wealth and employment.
Right. I guess my point was that I don’t really understand the purpose for this thread, because the options for an uninsured 26 year old are exactly the same as those for an uninsured 50 year old, right? All of which depends on your individual circumstances, not your age, like which state you live in, your income, whether your employer offers insurance, whether you are in school. It makes one question why parents of college grads are on here asking how their 26-year-old kids should get covered. Its the law now and they are 26,so why not let them figure it out for themselves? There is no uniform answer for 26 year olds, just like there is no uniform answer for 50 year olds.