<p>Anyone know the restrictions or particulars about continuing to include your child on your health insurance policy through age 23? Not sure if it's only for kids who are full-time students or who qualify as a dependent for income tax purposes. S. will be starting a job where he will receive coverage but wondered about keeping him on our policy for secondary coverage. Kinda figure it's a no-go.</p>
<p>it depends on your insurance plan. My mother’s plan covers me until I am 23 as long as I am a full time student. Using her insurance is much cheaper than buying insurance from the university. I reccomend you call your particular company to find out.</p>
<p>I know my son will be taken off our health plan (Kaiser Permanente) when he turns 22 this September, even though he will still be a student. I don’t know if being a student matters… Guess I could check.</p>
<p>I think it depends on the insurance carrier. For me to stay on my parents’ insurance, I HAVE to be taking at least 12 units per semester. But when I turn 23, I’m on my own.</p>
<p>We recently got a letter from our medical insurer stating that there are new state laws regarding this issue. Our daughter can now be covered until age 25 and being a student does not matter.</p>
<p>However, if your son in receiving coverage from his job that probably would end his coverage on your policy.</p>
<p>Having two primary health plans is a very bad idea. If something happens then both insurance companies can legally hold that they are only responsible for half of the expense, which means that you pay BOTH copays and BOTH deductibles and ALL of the overages. Twice the premiums, but for half the coverage. A very bad idea.</p>
<p>cmbmom - this is our experience. But this is what we were told: she can continue coverage with our health insurance as long as we are supporting her by providing more than 50% of her living expenses, and she isn’t working a full-time job. So, living at home constitutes that 50% of her expenses they refer to, and since her job (40 hours a week) is only temporary (guaranteed for the summer only, so sort of like an internship) and she is considered a contract employee, we are able to keep her on our policy. </p>
<p>Our daughter graduated in May and won’t be 22 until September.</p>
<p>When I first called about this last fall, I was told my H’s employer had adopted the guidelines for dependence as defined by the IRS now, which allows them to offer health insurance for longer. I thought it was basically up to each individual employer/insurance carrier, but if it is becoming state law in some places, I think that’s great. By the way, we live in Illinois.</p>
<p>Just what we suspected. We’ll just have to keep our fingers and toes crossed that he holds onto his new job in this awful economy :(</p>
<p>just for clarification (although I know this doesn’t apply to worrywart’s son since he has a full-time job), the definition for IRS guidelines is for ‘qualifying relative’, as opposed to ‘qualifying child’.</p>
<p>Susantm,
Do check with Kaiser. Our Kaiser plan covered our D past her 23rd B’day in an October until she finished her semester and degree. The degree date was January and her coverage stopped 1/31. For our son, who turned 22 in an April and graduated the next month in May, his coverage stopped on 5/31. They had to be continuous full time students.</p>
<p>Thanks, mominva. I will call on Monday. It would be nice to have him covered for one more school year. He got a notice saying his coverage would end, but he isn’t that good about reading the fine print. I probably should have read it myself.</p>
<p>It depends on your insurance coverage. My policy allows me to cover dependent son while he is a full-time student, up to the age of 26.</p>
<p>Susan,
We’d continually get those notices and need to send verification of full time status to extend the coverage.</p>
<p>It also depends on the State you live in, as some States have negotiated different terms with insurance carriers for their residents.</p>