Adult children on their parents health insurance until they are 30?

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Re: Adult children on their parents health insurance until they are 30?

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The Adult Children of New Jersey
Garden State tries novel way to keep young people insured

by Anya Kamenetz
February 21st, 2006 12:02 PM

Right now, thousands of people under 30 are crashing their cars. They're getting pregnant, catching STDs, and succumbing to accidents, sports injuries, violence, and self-inflicted harm. One out of three of them is doing these things without the safety net of health insurance. Young adults are the largest and fastest-growing group in America without health insurance, with a rate double that of older working-age adults. The Institute of Medicine says lack of health insurance plays a part in the premature deaths of 1,930 young adults every year.
Kids from the middle class, the ones whose parents have jobs and benefits, can usually stay on their parents' policies until age 19, 23 if they're full-time students. After that, they either have to land a "real job"—and even then they might have to wait six months for benefits—or buy coverage for themselves. Insurance on the private market can cost thousands of dollars a year. State programs for low-income working adults have stringent income requirements: $25,125 a year for Healthy New York, for example.

At some last, legislators across the country are starting to take notice. A new law in New Jersey will make parents' coverage available to offspring as old as 30. Backers of a similar bill that has been stalled in New York say the change next door may give their measure new hope.

Tara, a 25-year-old graduate student at Monmouth University, says she works "extremely part-time" at a seasonal job and currently relies on Cobra—meaning she pays the full tab to keep her health insurance from a previous job. Her mother is a nurse at the New York Times production plant in New Jersey. Tara, who asked that only her first name be used, says she would definitely consider taking advantage of health coverage through her mother's job if it were affordable, say around $200 a month. Cobra normally runs out after 18 months. "I worry about having lost my insurance," she says.

She'll soon have another choice. New Jersey's bill, which was signed into law by the governor last month and goes into effect in May, requires employers to extend health coverage to the 30-and-under offspring of workers, as long as they remain unmarried and have no children of their own. "It's really a home run for everybody," says Assemblyman Neil Cohen, who came up with the idea. "We've been getting calls from all over the country." He says his bill has the potential to cover 100,000 of New Jersey's uninsured.

In New York, Republicans have introduced a bill on four separate occasions since 1999 to raise the age at which a young adult can be covered by a parent's policy from 23 to 25. The bill is currently not active, but a spokesperson from the assembly minority office said he hoped that the passage of the New Jersey law would give it "some traction."

The idea of twentysomethings staying on their parents' plans might sound infantilizing at first blush. News accounts of the law can't seem to avoid using the oxymoronic phrase "adult children" to describe its intended beneficiaries. These are people who are well past the age of majority and often finished with their education, who should be self-sufficient by now. That so many of them can't find employer-based coverage on their own would seem to indicate a larger problem than a stopgap program like this can fix.

As Cohen describes the New Jersey law, it's a win for everyone involved. Private individual insurance in the state can cost $7,000 a year, a price few people are able or willing to pay. These new dependent policies will probably cost between $1,200 and $2,000 a year, a sum close to the actual annual average medical costs incurred by relatively healthy under-30-year-olds. Parents of young adults will get peace of mind. Employers don't shoulder any extra cost, since the premium is paid by the family—in theory, by the so-called adult child. The state will save on the $600 million it spends each year on charity care for uninsured people who show up at hospitals. "When this proposal came through, [all sides] were looking to see what was wrong with this law, but they couldn't come up with anything," Cohen says. "It even benefits the health insurance industry. Now they will have a new revenue source—an additional policy that they didn't have before."

Cohen's brainstorm is the most generous example of a new state approach forcing employers to take responsibility for young people who have been left out in the cold. Other states that have raised the dependency age limit, generally from 23 to 25 or 26, include Utah, Texas, New Mexico, and last month, Colorado. California's bill, vetoed last year, is slated to be reintroduced this spring. Also, in January, New Hampshire's house passed Michelle's Law, named for Michelle Morse, who died of cancer at 22. Morse remained enrolled at Plymouth State University full-time even while undergoing chemotherapy because if she had changed to part-time or dropped out, she would have lost her free insurance under her mother's plan. The new law extends coverage for up to a year for college students who take an illness- related leave of absence.

A strategy of small steps like these and the one in New Jersey may be better than nothing. "In the absence of doing broader system reform and more universal coverage, this policy at least addresses the most tenuous time in terms of health care—entrance into the labor market," says Sara Collins of the Commonwealth Fund, a nonpartisan health care research organization. Collins recommended just this kind of change in a 2003 report, "Rite of Passage? Why Young Adults Become Uninsured and How New Policies Can Help."

Collins acknowledges that these laws can't help everybody. If the parents don't have benefits to share, their kids are out of luck.

That's the case for Tracy Alwell, 29. A 2004 graduate of Monmouth University in New Jersey, she is currently unemployed, although she most recently worked for E! Entertainment Television—freelance, no benefits. Her father is on Social Security disability. Alwell herself has a rare neurological condition, restless legs syndrome, that keeps her up at night and requires a medication usually prescribed for Parkinson's disease. She cuts her pills into quarters to make them last.

Since reaching adulthood she has been uninsured for all but two years, when she was covered under New Jersey Family Care, a state low-income program. "I had to fight to get it," she says. "It took me 11 months from the time I sent in my application until I got coverage, and I was calling them almost every day following up—I think they gave me coverage so I would stop bothering them—and then I was knocked off because there was too much income in the household." At the time, she was making less than $800 a month and living with her dad. They were scraping along, but by Family Care standards—this year, the monthly cap for a two-person home is $1,100—they were too rich for the rolls.

Alwell recently got a savings card to try to get her needed medicine more cheaply. "I called the pharmacy to get a price on a two-month prescription, which was $150," she says. "I suddenly burst into tears because I could not afford that. I sold something of mine to get some money, called the clinic back and asked if they could call in a prescription for one month instead. . . . I never would have dreamed that someone with a college degree would go through this."

Re: Adult children on their parents health insurance until they are 30?

I do not like the philosophy behind it - I think after college you should provide for yourself - but the economics makese sense for the insurers, the gov't, and the families.

Message edited 2/22/2006 9:41:06 AM.

Re: Adult children on their parents health insurance until they are 30?

What if, like me, you're 23, still in college, not yet married, and reallllly can't afford health insurance through your part-time job?!

I think its a great idea.

Re: Adult children on their parents health insurance until they are 30?

Re: Adult children on their parents health insurance until they are 30?

I am on their coverage - cuts off at 23.

Re: Adult children on their parents health insurance until they are 30?

Posted by Shorty

I am on their coverage - cuts off at 23.

Re: Adult children on their parents health insurance until they are 30?

I like that idea. I wish we could have kept DH on his mom's insurance... Our insurance rates are terrible where I work... we couldn't afford to keep DH on our insurance... so he has the school's 'don't get sick' insurance.

Basically, it coveres him if something big happens.

Luckily he gets benefits with his internship next year. I'll be so relieved when he has insurance.

My friend's insurance got cancelled at 22... and she was still in school for a few more months - she was basically screwed since she was still in school full time... I def think it should be older.

Re: Adult children on their parents health insurance until they are 30?

I don't think this will solve much. I think it's more important that there be shared benefits between domestic partners than people up to the age of 30 under their parents' insurance. I think THAT would be more beneficial.


ETA: I do think health benefits from parents' insurance should be extended for students in college. I can see if you were in school full-time and were able to get your parents' benefits until you graduated. That, to me, makes sense.

Message edited 2/22/2006 10:07:05 AM.

Re: Adult children on their parents health insurance until they are 30?

I actually "slipped through the cracks". I am 28 and received a health ins. card from my fathers insurance- thankfully, I have a job and my own insurance and don't need it, but two years ago I didn't and there was no way I could afford it. I was supposed to be cut off at 23, but somehow I wasn't and I thank god I wasn't- there was no way I could afford my own. I don't think it's a bad thing- unless people try to take advantage of it.

Re: Adult children on their parents health insurance until they are 30?

Message edited 2/22/2006 9:59:09 AM.

Re: Adult children on their parents health insurance until they are 30?

Of course, there will be some people that take advantage of it...there always are. BUT many of my friends are still in school, with no health insurance. One friend tore a major ligament in her knee when the heel of her shoe broke....she required surgery, and months of physical therapy. She applied for medicaid several times, but she makes too much money at her part time job to qualify. She works to pay for school.

Its just sad.

Re: Adult children on their parents health insurance until they are 30?

Re: Adult children on their parents health insurance until they are 30?

i think its a great idea. I went without insurance for a little while. I was in law school until I was 25 and after being booted by my mom's health insurance at 23- I was on my own until I had a job. Thankfully nothing happened. I also think that since 9/11, a lot of people have been unemployed- or have to take jobs that don't take insurance- and its so dangerous.

Re: Adult children on their parents health insurance until they are 30?

I think it's a great idea. I was out, living on my own at 23. I couldn't afford rent and health insurance so I went without health insurance. Thank goodness, nothing happened to me.

Re: Adult children on their parents health insurance until they are 30?

Posted by MsG

Posted by nov04libride

My parents said at 21, graduated from college or not, we were on our own for insurance, car and health.

My parents said 18 which was, and still is, ridiculous, and partly why it's taken my forever to finish college. I deeply resent them for it.

Re: Adult children on their parents health insurance until they are 30?

I also think it's a great idea.

I understand the concept of "be an adult and pay for your own health insurance", but if someone wants to pursue an advanced degree on a full time basis (without working full time at the same time), the cost of an individual policy is sickening.

Sure, people have done it, but it's only within the past few years that the cost for health insurance has been prohibitive. I think this can help alleviate the problem a bit.

Re: Adult children on their parents health insurance until they are 30?

Message edited 2/22/2006 10:27:32 AM.

Re: Adult children on their parents health insurance until they are 30?

Re: Adult children on their parents health insurance until they are 30?

I was on my parents until I was 25 and out of college!!

Re: Adult children on their parents health insurance until they are 30?

Message edited 2/22/2006 10:40:02 AM.

Re: Adult children on their parents health insurance until they are 30?

Message edited 2/22/2006 10:42:38 AM.

Re: Adult children on their parents health insurance until they are 30?

Some schools have different levels of coverage for different amounts of money, too.

Re: Adult children on their parents health insurance until they are 30?

Ahhh, ok. It varies.

Re: Adult children on their parents health insurance until they are 30?

I just checked--Stony Brook is $900 per year for student insurance, no options on variable coverage.