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Continued from page 1 Most health insurance companies will allow your dependents to remain on your plan until they reach a certain "cutoff age" (usually 23 to 25 years old). Find out your plan's cutoff age. However, the plan may also require that your child attend school full-time in order to remain insured. So if your plan's cutoff age is 23, but your 19-year-old attends college only part-time, he may lose coverage. Check with your employee-benefits personnel at work or your insurer directly to find out how your plan defines "dependent children."
Cutoff ages and restrictions vary by state. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, Utah became the first state in 1994 to adopt a law that allows health insurance coverage for unmarried dependents up to their 26th birthday, regardless of school enrollment status. In 2006, New Jersey passed a law that extends coverage eligibility to unmarried dependents up to age 30, as long as they do not have any dependents of their own.
However, your children could still find themselves uninsured — even if they are below the cutoff age and attend college full-time.
If you have a managed care plan, such as an HMO, it will have geographical doctor-network limits. That means even if your child remains covered under your HMO when he leaves for college, the health plan might be worthless far away from home and away from the plan's network of providers.
If the doctor is not in the HMO network, routine office visits will not be covered. When you are outside your HMO's network, the only medical care likely covered is emergency room treatment.
Thus, if your children have been dropped from your plan because they have reached the cutoff age (even if they move back in with you to attend school full-time) or if the coverage under your HMO won't apply, or if your family has no health coverage at all, they'll have to shop around for their own health insurance.
Federal law allows dependent children to buy an additional 36 months of group health coverage through COBRA when they have been dropped from their parents' group health plan. |
COBRA is one option. Federal law allows dependent children to buy an additional 36 months of group health coverage through COBRA when they have been dropped from their parents' group health plan. Know your COBRA rights.
But COBRA premiums can be expensive, especially on a college budget. Still, COBRA offers a major advantage to children who have medical conditions, such as diabetes, because it is a surefire way to maintain the same coverage your child had through your health plan, at least temporarily.
Maintaining coverage under COBRA also can help your child qualify for health insurance coverage later under the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). HIPAA offers important protections against exclusions for pre-existing medical conditions.
Besides COBRA, another option is student health insurance offered through your child's college or university. See health plans for college students.
While college health plans are generally affordable, the benefits themselves vary greatly. In addition, there are plans that will not cover students who are injured while playing college sports and others require supplementary insurance specific to college athletes.
For example, Knox College in Galesburg, Ill., offers optional supplementary insurance to cover basic accident and sickness as well as group insurance to cover student athletes. Its student athletes are required to participate in its group accident insurance policy that covers them for injuries that result from participating in intercollegiate athletics.
The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va., offers a secondary or supplemental athletic accident insurance to its athletes who participate in intercollegiate sports.
Washington College in Chestertown, Md., automatically enrolls its full-time students in a school-sponsored accident and sickness health insurance plan through University Health Plans. It charged its students a $900 premium for the 2009-10 school year. Full-time students who do not wish to enroll in the college's health insurance must provide proof that they have adequate coverage from another insurer. Continued: Property insurance
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