<p>Our son graduates from college this month and will no longer be covered under our family health insurance policy. He has described his future plans as being in flux (I might even use the word murky :) ) It is safe to say he will probably not be getting benefits from a full-time employer for the next several months. </p>
<p>Does anyone have experience with short term medical limited duration insurance? We received a brochure from a company called Meyer and Associates selling it. Any info is appreciated.</p>
<p>Goto- I don't know where you live but we loved Golden Rule for our kids after college. It was a high deductible major medical plan- covered all the horrible catastrophic stuff, but you go to Dr. for a cold, you pay out of pocket. Our kids were healthy so we weren't worried about ongoing care, and for non-smokers it was really cheap. We had priced a couple of policies and this was the way to go. I believe it is cheaper than limited duration insurance- you are covered as long as you pay your premiums so for a kid who may be in grad school, could be in a job with no insurance, or could have a job with insurance (who knows?) it was ideal. </p>
<p>We bought online. Kids were happy to be insured without paying big bucks.</p>
<p>Check to see if he can get COBRA coverage from your plan. If he might be without insurance for more than 6 months, the short term might not work. I think COBRA can go for up to 18 months.</p>
<p>Short term gap plan coverages are oft times available through alumni associations as well, usually available in three to six month increments up to a year and can be decent, cost effective plans.</p>
<p>gotopractice, what state are you in? You have federal COBRA benefits available, as Singersmom says, for 18 months. There are also several states that have extended dependent coverage further. I know off the top of my head that New Hampshire and New Jersey both have extended dependent coverage. Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield also has a policy that is specifically aimed at young single adults. </p>
<p>You might want to ask your employer benefits administrator to put you in touch with their insurance broker - they will know right off the bat what's available in your area.</p>
<p>Contact your state insurance commissioner, via the link below, to determine options in your state. As Jude mentioned, NH just extended coverage for ALL children of subscribers under the age of 26. There are some tax implications if the young adult does not qualify as a dependent. In Massachusetts, everyone is required to be insured but there is significant financial assistance for folks making <30K $ a year -- so contact the insurance commission in your state. You may be pleasantly surprised!!!!</p>
<p>In CT, I believe it is changing to coverage for dependents (that is the key...) until age 25 as of Jan 1, 2009...and they do NOT need to be college students. </p>
<p>I seem to remember something in Massachusetts...coverage until age 26 OR two years after the student is declared a dependent...whichever happens LAST. But I could be wrong about that provision.</p>
<p>Regardless...more and more states are recognizing that some college graduates remain dependents and still need health care coverage. Thank goodness.</p>
<p>We will be looking for a plan for a graduate who has health issues and needs full coverage...including prescription (prescriptions cost in excess of $200 per month).</p>
<p>We went with normal individual, 80/20, high annual deductible insurance. The additional cost for normal insurance was only slightly more than temporary ins. The problem with temp insurance is that if a medical condition arises, the temp insurance may not necessarily renew and if renewed, only renewed once, and traditional medical insurance providing an exclusion to that condition. Further if a job is present, it may be dependent on the health of the applicant. </p>
<p>Another reason is that I do not expect universal medical care in the near future and jobs are such that fewer and fewer are providing benefits. Benefits should not be a buying feature for a job.</p>
<p>thumper - friends in a similar situation had DD enroll full time at local community college after graduation, while she sorted out her options...enabled her to stay on parents plan.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the information. I'll have son follow up on some of the suggestions. We're hoping to not have to use Cobra coverage due to the high expense (although we're grateful that it's an option.) And definitely grateful that he's a healthy guy.</p>
<p>Blossom mentioned she got Golden Rule for her child. We did also and do not recommend it. It is a high deductible, but they may require you to meet the deductible several times. For example, we found out that for the same medical condition, there were separate deductibles for each diagnosis. So if different doctors have different diagnosis, the same condition may have two or three deductibles. Get another insurance, these guys were really terrible. You might as well burn your cash.</p>
<p>Same boat; our S's coverage under my policy through employment ends with the end of this month (graduation) since he will not be in school in the fall. Found what seems to be good month-to-month coverage from California Blue Shield (chose a high deductible). Hope nothing will happen and if it does we will not encounter the problems mentioned above. The Cobra cost was outrageous.</p>
<p>COBRA is very expensive. Your premium isn't based on a young, healthy person. It's based on the aggregate group. I priced Tricare COBRA as DH and I are both retired military. $500+ a month. I got a short term Aetna policy, designed for transitioning young adults, for a lot less. It worked out to about the same cost per month as a college plan offered by a university.<br>
Shop around. But don't wait until the last minute. There is time involved to review and underwrite the policy. For young, healthy adults, all we usually need is that catastrophic coverage. God forbid that the catastrophe happens in that gap.</p>
<p>ctmom...good suggestion...but my son will have finished his masters degree. I seriously doubt that he will be at all interested in a community college program of any sort at that point.</p>
<p>Luckily, he'll be covered on my policy until either his 25th or 26th birthday (gotta check that new guideline in CT that goes into effect on Jan 1, 2009).</p>
<p>I'd go out to Blue Cross for your state and run the estimate program. I just ran it for our state for a 26yo male and the programs range from $190/mo for a traditional $250 co=pay, 80% co-insurance plan with prescription coverage to $59 for a $5000 deductible plan with 100% co-insurance and prescriptions only after the deductible is met.</p>
<p>I think it is very important to have at least a minimum of health coverage to cover catastrophic events. In the past few years, I've had several friends without health insurance deal with things like kidney stones (a young man in his late 20s/early 30s), concussion (young man in early 20s), and a drastically premature baby (young couple in 20s). You just can't predict life.</p>
<p>Be very, very wary of no-name bargain insurance companies. Re post # 12: it is common for fly-by-night insurers to pull this kind of thing, or to have exclusions that really make no sense. For example, several years ago we had health insurance with MEGA through the National Association of the Self-Employed. We discovered that it did not cover chemotherapy, just to cite one example. (Luckily we did not discover this through needing to use it.) Many, many people have faithfully paid premiums to insurers only to discover that when they finally needed the policy the company would not pay or cancelled them almost immediately. Of course, big insurers aren't exactly eager to fulfill their promises either, but it's even worse with the others.</p>
<p>I agree with Consol. That is why COBRA is the way to go. If you buy stop gap coverage, you do need to really research what is covered. It used to be that high deductible catastrophic coverage for young people was cheap and effective, but now there is much on the market with gaps that are unacceptable. I still think a part time job at a place that gives health insurance is a good idea. Or the navy, coastguard, other military reserves.</p>