We absolutely kept our kids on our insurance until they were 26, despite their being offered plans through their employers (and S was/is a federal employee). They declined the coverage from their employer. No issues at all. The only hiccup was nagging them to make sure they kept up with the preventative care visits required by our plan - failure to comply would result in a premium increase for us.
Another consequence of keeping your kids on your plan is that you have access to their healthcare details within the account, which one or both parties might not ideally want.
We also have a wraparound policy thru DHâs work that covers all out-of-pocket expenses from the primary insurance, so I have to remind the kids to send me receipts for co-pays and other out-of-pocket expenses because submitting that info is not straightforward, and even if I taught them they wouldnât do it (plus then they would have access to parent healthcare details.) So, in an even more immediate way I know if they went to the ER/urgent care, visited X specialist, was treated for X, saw a therapist who doesnât take insurance, etc.
For us, itâs only about $10 more/month to have âfamily planâ than just H and W plan. Itâs well worth the peace of mind for us because we know H has excellent plan that allows us to see anyone anywhere. D is a medically disabled dependent and allowed to be covered under Hâs plan. She has been able to get great care in CA at nearly every MD she wished, nearly all are participating & preferred with BCBS, including Stanford, USC & UCLA.
3 Likes
Do the math on vision and dental.
These are profitable plans for insurers for a reason, folks! IF it works for you and your kids-- after pricing out whatâs covered, what your predictable needs are likely to be- FANTASTIC. But many employees just check the box (who doesnât love a pair of free glasses?) without running the numbers and realizing that you may have one year where it makes sense- so you stay on the plan-- and then have five years where youâre paying more in premiums than you are getting back in coverage so are in a net loss position- and inertia means you stay on the plan, and on and on and onâŠ
Happy theyâve worked for many of you. Win-win!
1 Like
Probably different for different carriers, but we do not have the ability to see details of services provided for others in the plan (18+). I canât see Hâs and he canât see mine. And when the kids were in the policy as adults, I couldnât see theirs.
For the required preventative care, we each get letters with details of whatâs outstanding, and H (the plan owner) gets a separate letter saying that someone is out of compliance with something.
At the time, I insisted on knowing the kidsâ login to the compliance site (different from their healthcare portal login) to be able to see who needed to be nagged, and for what. 
3 Likes
My husband currently has 3 medical insurance plans. Medicare is primary, Medicare supplement is secondary, and then he is part of a special insurance plan that will cover everything the others donât for specific conditions only.
Providers never get it right and when they donât submit in the right order with the right codes things donât get paid.
From my personal experience, having multiple insurances (primary and secondary) can mean having to spend time getting the billing done correctly by your health care providers. YMMV
3 Likes
But isnât that better than having to pay the bill yourself? You, and your husband, must feel it is worth it to have 3 policies
I only have one insurer and I still have issues with mis-coded things, things not submitted to insurance, submitted late. Right now Iâm dealing with a mammogram from Nov that hasnât been paid. The insurer seems to be right on this one as my EOB denied the claim but said I donât have to pay because it is a mammogram that is to be paid without co-pay. I think the provider is coding it wrong. Provider wonât clear the account. I donât have that insurer anymore and canât use that provider anymore. I just want it gone.
1 Like
The third insurer is free to us (9/11 insurance from the federal government). Yes, in general there are always problems with health insurance payments (as you state), but having the provider bill in the right order adds a level of complexity to the process.
1 Like
I am pretty good about persisting and being sure that bills get paid. For 5 years, bcbs kept sending bills to Medicare B for primary tho he didnât have it since he was still working. I would get bcbs to pay as primary and we would pay out tiny copay. It worked.
My immediate thought was loss of HSA access, as others above have suggested.
Assuming a HDHP is what heâd select, if he has that plan on the last month of the year then heâs eligible for a max HSA contribution for the full year as long as he continues to be eligible for all of next year. Look up last month rule for details.
Of course, the value of the HSA contribution to him depends on the salary and marginal tax rate as well as whether heâll be maxing out the 401k. Those who see the HSA as very valuable are usually maxing out 401k contributions and for the most part arenât planning to use HSA funds in the short term (they can be used tax free decades later for eligible expenses, including Medicare premiums).
Employer contributions are worth capturing if the math works.
Ultimately itâs probably not a big deal for only a few years, and if thereâs a major medical expense he will pay more with the HDHP.
1 Like
If you think the provider is wrong and they persist call the billing department and tell them you will be calling your insurance company and referring it to the âinsurance fraud/balance billing division for investigationâ
Then call your insurance company and do it!
Itâs amazing how quickly that can get results. I had to do that with an issue I fought for 9-12 months. After I did that the provider called that afternoon and said my account was zeroed out.
I already told them Iâm not paying. I was setting up a payment plan for LAST yearâs copays that they were slow in billing so carried over to 2025, and Iâm just paying slowly since they billed slowly. When setting it up, IN JANUARY, the guy said âJust so you know, they havenât cleared the mammo bill.â I told him âJust so you know, Iâm not paying.â That was Jan, now it is May. They havenât paid yet.
Itâs just that they have the account still open and I canât go there anymore because of the change in insurance. They didnât actually bill me for it, and the EOB says they canât.