"Everyone knows how to raise children, expect the people who have them" P.J.O'Rourke
If any good has come of the recent downturn it is your acute focus on the cost of the world around you. You know about retirement planning, personal finance and savings and when it comes to health insurance, we have become experts. But are expert enough to discuss this with our children once they get a job?
The answer is probably not. Like most things in life, we hone in the important topics to us. When it comes to our kids and whether or not they were covered under our health plans, we spent the time, asked the questions and were obviously thankful when the Affordable Care Act pushed most of the insurers to cover our kids until age 26. We knew it didn't matter whether they were married or not, although the coverage didn't extend to their families.
So as a result of this shift in the law, we have an additional one million, reasonably healthy workers in the pool, which should (but has yet) driven the cost down. But suppose your child has access to their own health insurance plan at their new job? If your insurer finds out, your child may (and has the right to) refuse coverage. It is up to your coverage limits.
Some are more generous than others. But they are not required to be. By 2014, this will change. But until then, they can refuse your child if they know they have coverage with their jobs.
While you may initially see the opportunity as a cost savings on your part, educating your child about what they need to know about their new policy options should be considered as a plus. And if there is a negative, it might be that your child will find the costs you saved shifted to them.
This could eventually cost you as well. As parents, we often subsidize our children against the best advice. We can't help ourselves. We foot the bill for costs such as cellphones, help with ancillary costs of independence such as groceries or furnishings and may even contribute to their rent.
Overall, the plan provided for your child through work might be less expensive than the individual policy you are carrying. You should perhaps take the opportunity to re-shop your health insurance options. While this will always be a complicated and often confusing topic, the upside is helping your child learn the language of insurance is a gift that is worth giving.
