<p>What happens if your son gets sick and after he turns 26 he is forced to look for new insurance. If he is employed, it will not be a problem, but what if he wasn’t. Could he find insurance with a pre-existing condition? Just asking.</p>
<p>IllinoisMom: I understand you don’t necessarily want your son on your coverage. This is one of my issues… Under HIPAA, you can’t ask your son’s doctor what’s wrong with him–but you can pay for the insurance and then pay the bills. To me, this is absolutely insane. I would have liked to see all kid’s health insurance end at age 18 and individual policies then made available. (Of course, I would be all in favor of national single payer, but we don’t have that.)</p>
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<p>This was my thought.</p>
<p>Ideally, yes, but not when the difference is big bucks.</p>
<p>parent 57: If he has had continuous coverage, all pre-ex clauses are waived. It’s the law. Pre-ex exclusions are now very rare indeed.</p>
<p>Over the course of 4 years, it’s about $8,000 pre-tax maybe about $6,000 after-tax. It’s a big price to pay for the feel of total independence but not any greater than tens of thousand we pay for status symbols, like a fancy car when no name works just as well. It is probably up to the individual culture, what they value. In some cultures paying to maintain a status symbol is widely accepted while paying for an invisible concept as gaining total independence from parents is not.</p>
<p>If we had to pay any extra to have S on our plan, he would be taking the employer’s plan. But, we don’t. S is very frugal. Paying for duplicate coverage to prove his independence doesn’t make sense to him.</p>
<p>And, just to be clear, he will be responsible for all of the medical costs he incurs. This decision costs us nothing and makes him money. It seems like a no-brainer at this point.</p>
<p>I would let your son stay on your husband’s insurance until 26. It sounds like you have a very good insurance plan with little added cost. Your son can earn $1800. Until something change it makes sense to stay with a good health plan. In this economy, who knows how long your son’s job will last.</p>
<p>VeryHappy, I think you are referring to something else. Yes, in the individual insurance market there is no waiting period for insuring pre-existing conditions if you had continuous coverage under a previous policy, however that doesn’t mean an insurance company will offer an insurance policy for a person with a pre-existing condition. People who have been sick are very often denied coverage in the individual market despite having continuous coverage while they have been working. That is why you have Cobra. In this example, I am suggesting after he leaves his parent’s plan upon turning 26 and if he doesn’t have a job with a company that offers health insurance, he may not be eligible for insurance in the individual market and he also may not be eligible for Cobra. Of course, this would not be the case if Obama Care survives, but I wouldn’t count on that.</p>
<p>parent57, to answer the scenario you have suggested, if S were to take his employer’s coverage, get sick, and then lose his job after age 26, he would be eligible for COBRA for 18 months. If he lost the job before he turned 26, he would still be on H’s plan, the coverage of which would become primary. He would then qualify for TCC (see next) when he hit 26.</p>
<p>If S waives his employer’s plan, gets sick, and loses his job, he would then be eligible for 36 months of Temporary Continuation of Coverage (TCC) after reaching the age of 26 under my H’s plan. He would have to pay the entire premium + a 2% administrative fee. </p>
<p>I think we are safe either way.</p>
<p>Does your son live in the same city as you? We will keep our daughter (graduate student) on our plan as the school plan is about $2400 per year. BUT our BCBS plan, not through federal gov’t, has out of networks benefits. This is what she would be covered under. Out of network benefits have more deductibles and less coverage all around. We worked through the numbers and she still is better off with us. We are a “family plan” so there is no additional cost to us.</p>
<p>Based on this thread, I have sent an email to our insurer to double-check on his coverage & whether to have him get insurance thru his new employer. Have no idea at this time whether they’ll pay him some sum if he doesn’t get covered under their policy, but it would be a SIGNIFICANT savings for them. I figure I’ll get the info & share the email with him so he can figure it out when he goes to orientation later this month. He is out of state but BCBS, so he should not have too much difficulty finding participating & preferred healthcare providers & could see his HI docs when he comes down here. Appreciate all the posts folks have made to help us in our discussion with S on the issue.</p>