Parents: Health Care Insurance Reform WILL NOT apply to the Class of 2010. Help!

[digmedia]

<p>I have been through it all and I see some confusion throughout this thread.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Do not confuse state laws about continued coverage with Federal law. Some states (mine is one, NJ is another) require employers to continue coverage for adult children up to a certain age. The catch is the one noted above - self insured companies (like mine) do not have to comply with the state law.</p></li>
<li><p>Even though there is a six-month gap in the federal law, almost all of the major health insurers have opted to extend coverage NOW, which effectively closes the gap for most of us.</p></li>
<li><p>The catch-22 of the situation: even though the health insurer will allow it, many companies are not immediately complying. In my company, the benefits provider said that we qualify for coverage, the insurance company says that we qualify, but the HR department does not have a “process in place to add an adult child back onto the policy of the parent.” But what is really happening is explained in the quote above:

But when parents ask for details from their employers about how to keep their children on a family plan, many are learning that their employers have said “no thank you” to their insurer’s offer to make the change early.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Instead of modifying health plans now, they plan to wait to provide the extended coverage until they are legally required to do so. For many employers, that means January 2011. The provision of the law takes effect Sept. 23, but employers don’t have to comply until the beginning of the new health plan year after the law becomes effective.

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<p>It’s all a bbit frustrating.</p>