D1 will turn 26 next January but will still be a student till the school year ends, and I thought I’ll begin researching options. Our HR indicated that based on this year’s rates, she can get COBRA @$860/mo (plus the existing COBRA that she has for vision and dental). I’m pretty sure the college policy will be significantly lower, but don’t know anything about its coverage and what the implications are for coverage soon after she graduates. I guess another option would be to go with the exchange in NY where she is now.
At that stage she wouldn’t have much of an income, and may be doing a bit of travel and I don’t know how restrictive the policies would be to be in-network. For those who have done some research, what were your main findings for students who outgrew their parents’ insurance and will be graduating a few months later, and likely move away? Thanks.
Each policy (her school’s student policy, your work COBRA policy, any of the insurance exchange policies, Medicaid if she is very low income) needs to be evaluated individually, since there are likely no general rules.
If she intends to move to another state that did not expand Medicaid eligibility but has an income in the “donut hole” (too high for Medicaid, too low for subsidies on the insurance exchanges), that can be a problem: https://www.healthcare.gov/medicaid-chip/medicaid-expansion-and-you/
S1 has a girlfriend who just had to buy insurance on the marketplace due to a coverage issue with her parents’ policy. She is paying approx 325 month for a Horizon Advance Gold EPO here in NJ. It is a little restrictive since she can’t go out of network, but has lower out of pocket than some others. For a lower premium you can have a higher deductible and some do cover out of network. The $325 is without a subsidy, so I’m sure your daughter can get some coverage fairly cheaply because the young people seem to have decent rates. She was looking for the lowest total out of pocket since she will be having a baby. The higher premium is more than offset by the lower total oop expense. After the baby she will go on her company plan.
If she can get insurance at a reasonable rate you might not want to consider medicaid…I’ve heard people sometimes have trouble finding a dr. when they need one. I don’t know how true that really is.
Try going on healthcare.gov. I was pleasantly surprised.If she has low income it might be a great rate, especially compared to cobra.
Note that ACA policies generally offer no coverage for medical care outside the U.S. So if your daughter’s plans include international travel she should probably get some travel insurance.