Our 24 year old child is engaged, working a great job but still on our insurance. We had thought she would be covered til age 26, but does her getting married end her coverage?
No. IIRC, she can continue to be covered on your plan.
@“Cardinal Fang” am I correct about this?
If she is moving to another state, she might need to get new coverage.
She is staying in the same state as parents.
Our married daughter was able to stay on ours until she turned 26.
She should check to see if her coverage under your plan would cover maternity. I’ve seen other plans that would not do so.
no
She can remain covered, but her husband is not covered and her children would not be covered.
The safest way to be sure is to double check with insurer that currently covers her. Ask them to email you the section of the policy that deals with your hypothetically married child under 26.
Our friends’ D lost her coverage under their policy after she got married, even tho she was under 26. Our S initially lost coverage when he turned 22 but then under Obamacare was covered from 1/1/2011 until he turned 26. He is single. Same years, different insurance policies.
If she loses coverage from your or your H’s plan, that would be a qualifying event, so she can get health insurance within 30 days of the qualifying event.
Yes, we should have specified that the ‘coverage to age 26’ is for group policies, but I assumed if the child was coveraged at age 24, it was a group policy.
In our case and our friends case, we both were covered by employer group policies. Since insurance is so important, I’d want written clarification that can be relied upon rather than an Internet guess.
Insurance is a contract. The terms of the contract control. The insurer and HR of the employer providing coverage should be able to give a written response on this.
You better be careful. The child coverage to 26 may be for dependent children. A married child is no longer dependent. Best to check with the insurer.
No, the ACA did not define it as dependent children.
I take it neither she nor her future husband have a job with insurance or access to insurance? If they do have access it might make sense to transition when they marry.
I agree that it doesn’t have to be dependent children. Most kids are no longer dependent when they hit 24.
My advice would be,
- Google “Affordable Care Act”, and read the specifics wrt dependent care.
- Call the the plan and ask for general questions.
Ask “If my dependent gets married prior to 26, are they still covered under my plan?”
Ask “If my married dependent gets pregnant, are they covered?”
Every insurance plan is different. If you have coverage through your work, the negotiated insurance terms could be different plan to plan, even within the same umbrella. For example, suppose you and your neighbor both have Aetna, but you work for different companies. One of you may have one prescription drug plan and one another. One may have a certain copay for a hospital ER visit, another something else.
Bottom line, you must get your answers from your own specific insurance company with regard to your own specific plan.
And yes, there are some items that are covered no matter what the plan, since the ACA “Affordable Care Act” was passed (such as well visits or pre existing conditions).
Our son married at 25 and was covered until age 26. DH a federal civilian employee with BCBS. Our coverage stated that marriage was not a qualifying event to end coverage.
Thx for input. This was a late Friday night thought, and wanted to get input over the weekend. Of course I will be making phone calls Monday morning to insurance company.
I did pull up and read our policy online, which is a group policy through my husband’s employer. It did not give any details regarding dependent getting married.
My D does have the ability to purchase insurance through her contract position, but was hoping to get a full time employee position which offers free health insurance for her and future spouse before she turns 26. Fiancé is still in school and has no insurance.
I have fleeting memory of some thread on cc about a daughter being covered as a dependent, but when unexpected pregnancy came along, that pregnancy and baby were not covered??
Anyway, just thought I would reach out to the collective wisdom of cc parents until I can get definitive details on Monday.
The baby will be covered only very initially. The baby will then need his or her own policy. I don’t believe YOUR policy will cover your daughter’s dependent child.
@powercropper there used to be some health insurance policies that were NOT ACA compliant but were “grandfathered”. I’m not sure if that is the case…or not. The grandfathered policies did not have all of the protections of the ACA.
Hoping @“Cardinal Fang” will see this thread and respond at some point.
I will say…if there is even a chance your daughter will become pregnant, she needs to do her research on medical coverage for a possible baby.
The ACA mandated that adult children under 26 can be covered by their parents’ plan, whether they are dependent or not. So if your policy is ACA-compliant, your daughter can continue her coverage under your plan.
However, your grandchildren would not be covered.
Our single S was covered under H’s insurance, even though he was financially independent and had a full time job that offered excellent subsidized health insurance. He chose not to get it until he turned 26 and aged off our plan. Our insurer knew and agreed he could remain on our plan with full coverage.
It’s best to clarify with insurer so no expensive surprises.