When a person turns 16 years old, they get to drive. When 21 comes around, they can drink legally. Additionally, when they turn 26 years old, their reward is moving off their parents’ health plan. It’s not exactly the most welcome birthday present, but before the Affordable Care Act was enacted, they would have been on their own much earlier. So as employees (or children of employees) approach 26 years of age, it’s important they be prepared. Here’s what to tell them.
Explain the Open Enrollment Windows
Once a year, usually in October or November, there’s an open enrollment period in which employees select their health care plans for the next year. Picking the right health plan is crucial because unless the employee experiences a qualifying event, they’re stuck with the plan for a year. Qualifying events are things that would be considered major life occasions — think marriage, divorce, having a baby or changing jobs.
To keep reading, click here: How to Prepare Employees for Moving Off Their Parents’ Health Plan
Other than the cost problem, this should have been a discussion done at home level, but perhaps the parents don’t really understand the healthcare insurance plan either.
I blame the confusing information one gets when does a search on the healthcare site. The only real information you get is cost of plans but detailed explanation of what is covered, where you can go for service by a doctor, where or not you chose a doctor, coverage of specific needs,etc. This makes choosing a plan very confusing, especially if you have never thought about it before. Also not explained by site, is your out of pocket expenses which are never discussed until you get hit with a bill afterwards. There’s no clear explanation of what is a covered service and what is not.
I went from a covered employer plan to a semi-covered employer plan to Medicare and if I didn’t ask questions especially when I asked coverage for approval for a medical service, I would never get this information. They confuse us at any age so if employer has a person available to discuss in detail the ins and out of getting a healthcare plan and how to create a link to contact plan once enrolled it helps a great deal.
Most insurance plans here in USA, like to keep those enrolled in a fog figuring, they will accept bill at face value and not question amount. A bit of education on how to properly use healthcare goes a long way.
I thought I’d mention that no longer being eligible to be on a parent’s plan IS a qualifying event for mid-year enrollment (provided you do it within the given time period when you lose coverage).
Irony:
(1) IF my wife were eligible for her employer’s health insurance plan, I’d have to exclude her from my employer’s medical plan. HOWEVER, my elder daughter’s eligibility for her employer’s (less generous) plan is irrelevant; because she’s still under age 26, she’s a “no-cost addition” to my “family plan.”
(2) Nonetheless, (as an exercise) I had elder daughter call a health insurance consultant to see if she were eligible for a better, highly-subsidized plan through the Affordable Care Act. Now she’s annoyed because she’d’ve gotten a better, ACA plan for cheap — except she is ineligible for ACA because her employer offers health insurance.
Ironic,no?