<p>[New</a> York Times Article: Rules Let Youths Stay on Parents Insurance](<a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/11/health/policy/11health.html?src=me&ref=health]New”>http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/11/health/policy/11health.html?src=me&ref=health)</p>
<p>Info on rules issued yesterday about this issue. Here is the entire article.</p>
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<p>Gladmom-
This is the best info I’ve seen so far on this!
I’ve printed it for all my co-workers who, like me, have young adult children.</p>
<p>I especially love the part about the company must notify those kicked off that they can again be eligible starting in Jan. Hurrah!</p>
<p>Thank you so much!</p>
<p>I think the clincher is that plans have to begin after Sept. 23. My plan has already notified us that this will not go into effect until January 2011. :(</p>
<p>^^Me too. Our insurance company is willing to bridge the gap, but our employer is not. Therefore son will need to find something from June through December.<br>
Better than nothing, though.</p>
<p>Our employer hasn’t decided WHAT to do. But the HR person did tell me that the open enrollment period did not apply for folks who would not otherwise have coverage…they have to take them on the group plan. What they are trying to decide is whether to do this NOW or make us all get alternate coverage from Sept 1 to Sept 23…our current family plan is paid through August 31…and that is when MY kid’s coverage will end…</p>
<p>Stay tuned.</p>
<p>To clarify, will the young adults have to pay extra to stay on the plan to age 26 or is that included in the price of a family plan? (Is this regulated or does it vary by insurance carrier?)</p>
<p>Twinmom–the rule is a little complicated. They can’t charge you more unless they would charge you more to add a child otherwise.</p>
<p>So–if they would charge you more if you added a younger child, they can charge you more to add your adult child. But if they wouldn’t charge you more to add a younger child, they can’t charge you more to add an adult child.</p>
<p>(Some companies do charge per child or per person–employee plus one, employee plus two, employee plus three, etc. Those employers could charge more. But if your employer just has employee, employee plus spouse, employee plus family, and you already have family coverage, they can’t charge you more).</p>
<p>Make sense?</p>
<p>Good question.
But since DH and I are paying for grad student adequate but not great high deductible policy, I will be happy to pay similar or even more to add him back to my much more comprehensive family group policy.</p>
<p>Like thumper says, stay tuned for many answers I bet.</p>
<p>And yet another article from NYT:
[THE</a> NEW LANDSCAPE: Graduates May See Coverage Gap After All](<a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/01/health/01landscape.html?ref=science]THE”>http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/01/health/01landscape.html?ref=science)</p>
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<p>This is a tough issue. My D is going on to grad school full time. Her funding pk includes student health insurance but it is very limited. She has a serious medical problem and takes 9 presciption drugs a day. The max for drugs is 5000/yr. That will not cover all her meds. I may need to keep her on my insurance for drug coverage - or go back to the old days when I was buying alot of drugs through Canada/India
Even the hospital coverage for the policy is very limited - 50,000 cap/yr. That is easy to go through. My work has not contacted me yet about this. I will pay if I have to - even with insurance I have paid 10,000 out of pocket some years. Geez - I will live in a box when I old!! It is my biggest concern now - without her meds she has can;t even stand or work for long periods. I think I got 3 hrs of sleep last night worrying about this. What is sad is that I have worked in health care for 30 years!!
Janie</p>
<p>^^That’s a lot to think about, Janie.
I’m still confused as to whether the insurance companies or employers have to keep the child on insurance if they child has other options, like Janie’s D. It’s my understanding that the companies don’t have to insure in that case. Somewhere i read that they may ask the child/parent to prove that they have no other insurance through their job/school before they will take them back.
Anyone else have more information?</p>
<p>My understanding, which might be bogus, is that the young adult cannot obtain insurance through work. I had not heard of school coverage negating the ability to keep on parent policy.</p>
<p>I also have a grad school son. He was kicked off my policy last dec at age 23.
We can’t afford Cobra, bought him a high deductible indiv policy. He is healthy so we only need to cover for the unexpected big ticket items.</p>
<p>My employer (also a health care system!) has just now mentioned that they will be enrolling young adults during open enrollment in the fall for Jan start date.
NO details yet on how much the cost will be, whether those kicked off will be invited back in fact, or only currently enrolled young adults can stay.
I am waiting anxiously for details as well.
The school policy offered our son also is totally inadequate, even though he is healthy.
It had very low per year limits and lifetime limits. One hospitalization could EASILY eat through it.</p>
<p>According to the NYT article (post 69), </p>
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<p>So if they have insurance from their job, they can’t get coverage from their parent’s insurance. The fact that insurance may be offered by a student’s college/uni would not preclude being on the parent’s coverage.</p>
<p>According to the NYT article from May 10 (post 61), </p>
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<p>The trick is that they don’t have to offer this until the start of whenever their new policy year begins after Sept. 23, 2010. They could offer it sooner, but they don’t have to.</p>
<p>It’s even worse for military families. Those dependents are booted off the family policy when the kids turn 22, if full time students, or at 18 if not.</p>
<p>Now with the health care reform, they STILL won’t be added to the family policy until possibly as late as October 2011. Seems there’s some legislations/military regulations that must be adjusted. I don’t remember all the details, just that my kids (early 20’s) who REALLY could use this now, won’t get it for a very long time.</p>
<p>I find it ironic that military families will be among the LAST to realize this new benefit.</p>
<p>It’s even worse for military families. Those dependents are booted off the family policy when the kids turn 22, if full time students, or at 18 if not.>>></p>
<p>They are covered until age 21; it doesn’t matter whether they are students or not. If a full-time student, coverage is until age 23 (until, not through age 23). This is for active duty. Two of my DDs have hit age 21 and had to get new IDs, etc with proof that they are students.</p>
<p>My husband is a retired federal employee and our youngest turns 22 in August, recent grad and very much unemployed. I was told this week that unless there is a new directive the Federal Employees Health Benefit program will wait until open enrollment-for us that means we will have to go with COBRA as she is not covered beyond the thirty day grace period. We will see what happens with our older daughter, who will be 25 in November. She just finished grad school and has so far, just one adjunct teaching job for Sept. Her current grad school coverage expires at the end of August so she is checking to see whether there is coverage through adjunct’s union. If not… she will have to be covered by us… hopefully the waiting to open enrollment will be modified and modified quickly.</p>
<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:
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<p>It’s all a bbit frustrating.</p>
<p>Really elementary question, but…</p>
<p>I graduated in May and will start grad school in August. I’m not taking classes this summer–am I still eligible to be on my parents’ insurance through the summer (graduation through the start of the Fall semester)?</p>
<p>psych_ – were you covered on a college policy as well? you might want to check on that – while I was stressing out over everything, my daughter learned from the health care administrator for her college that the student health coverage continues through August, even though she graduated in May. (It’s one of those bare minimum policies that all students at her college are required to have, with the premium paid by a mandatory student fee… but the point is I didn’t know until we checked that the coverage did not end with graduation).</p>
<p>Nope, I’ve been under my dad’s insurance… I called him to check, and he said I am, so that’s reassuring. :)</p>