November 16, 2007
When your kids are no longer eligible for your health plan:
Congratulations! You’ve raised your kids and graduated them from high school. If your kids are semi-normal, give yourself a hand.
Now how about their health insurance. The group policy you have at work may or may not cover your children from ages 19-25. Eligibility varies by plan and will usually require your young adults to attend school on at least a part time basis. Contact your HR department at work to give you the specifics.
Now what are your kids’ options out of high school?
Attending college full or part time: Here you have several options.
Insurance available through college. Do some research. Keep in mind student health plans are a good value but have limitations. Things to look for:
- How many credits does it take to be eligible?
- Is preventative care limited to the campus health center?
- Are doctors and treatment limited to the student health center or university hospital?
- Is coverage available during summer break?
- Does it cover hospitalization? If so for how long?
- Is there a maximum annual limit or lifetime limit on claims paid?
- Does it cover dental, eye-wear or prescription drugs? What are those limits?
- When does coverage change if a student drops out?
Most of the time, you’ll find it advisable to enroll your college student in the college health plan but keep them in your family plan just in case.
Temporary Insurance
Coverage for these short-term polices are limited to 6 months with possible extensions. The good parts:
- Reasonable price
- Easy enrollment with few medical questions
- Fast enrollment (same day or day after application is received by the insurer)
The Bad:
- Slow claims payment
- Not renewable
- No coverage for preexisting conditions
Also, if you happen to be injured or sick when your temporary policy ends, your coverage ends too.
Adults who work full or part time.
The most obvious solution is to enroll in their employers’ health plans. The drawbacks of this:
- They’re not immediately eligible for benefits or
- They have to pay a large amount of the monthly group premium and they don’t make much being entry level employees or
- Their health plan sucks
Try to impress upon your progeny the importance of health insurance. You may want to screen Sicko to help make your point (hopefully your kids won’t move to France). If these options don’t work or are not available, other options include:
Temporary insurance- See above.
COBRA- If your employer is large enough, you can request COBRA coverage for your children for up to 36 months. You’ll be required to pay the additional premium plus a processing fee.
Individual Insurance- Start the shopping process; I’d recommend a local independent agent with experience in health insurance. Shop several plans and carefully compare benefits and costs. It’s possible to put temporary insurance in force while waiting on an answer from a health insurer. The good news: their youth will work for them for a change.
[…] TIG presents Health Insurance for Adult Children | InsuranceYak.com posted at […]
So, I’m one of these adult children of which you speak. My dad had really good health insurance, which covered me while I was a student. However, now that I’ve graduated, I’m having trouble finding individual health coverage. My job doesn’t offer anything, and most places have denied me coverage since I’ve been on prescription medications in the past year. Any ideas on how to get some sort of guaranteed coverage?
Well the first thing I’d look for is if you can pick up COBRA coverage from your dad’s insurance.
No luck? Then the type of coverage you can get will depend alot on what state you live in.
You may want to read: http://www.insuranceyak.com/health-insurance-for-the-self-employed-20/
I like the move to France option myself.
Good luck