when do you stop paying for your adult child's medical?

[moneymom]

When do/would you stop paying for your adult child's medical insurance and expenses?  Dental and vision included.  Assume they are not doing well financially.

[myrrh]

Pretty sure the ACA raised the limit up to age 26 for parents with kids. So for me, age 26 or when they get married or graduate from college, whichever comes first. After age 26 if they aren't doing well financially I would spring for vision and glasses because it's hard to work when you can't see.

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

My parents kept me on their insurance thru college since it was cheaper than me buying a policy and better than the student plans.  They had to submit my transcripts every semester to show I was still enrolled.

Once I got my first job I had my own insurance from there on out.

[emma1420]

If I had kids, I would probably keep them on my insurance (providing it was pretty decent and it was subsidized by my employer) until they were 26 (which is the ACA age limit), unless they found a job that provide good health insurance.  

Like myrrh, I would also help with vision care and probably even dental care.   it's tough to work when you can't see or you are in pain.   

My mom dumped me from her insurance once I turned 18.  It truly sucked, and I ended up not having some things treated when I needed to, because I didn't have any sort of health insurance.

[Deleted]

Well, it kind of depends.  When older son leaves for college, I'm still going to have to carry family coverage for his brother so it makes sense to keep him on mine until he's 26, because it's no additional charge.  For younger son, I think I'd for sure keep him on until he was done with school and settled into a job where he could get his own.  Hopefully that would be before 26.

[bean29]

I will continue to pay for their medical care until they are:

1) done with College.

2) employed full time and have their own insurance or

3) they are beyond the limits of my policy to include them ie. 26.

I have a brother-in-law that dropped is DD as soon as she was 18. She was not done with HS. She ended up hospitalized with Mental Health issues, so she now has a big hospital bill to pay. It kills me. I really don't think he was that poor that he needed to drop her...and he has 2 other kids so I am not even sure it saved him any $$.

[justme]

I was on my parents insurance until I got my first job after college, but they slowly made me start paying for the copays and coinsurance. Which was a lot of money for me since I had problems. It was probably around a grand or two, maybe more. They'd pick up the tab when I was putting off appts I needed for not wanting to spend the money.

I got my first full time job at 23 and paid everything from then on out. Around 10k in the last 6 years for just copays and coinsurance.

[HoneyBBQ]

We've done/are doing til 26. *sigh* 

I don't mind having them on the insurance, but it's annoying to still pay for the deductibles/copays for a 25 yr old. Flame away.

[The Captain]

I guess it depends?

If she's in school we'll keep the insurance.  If she's out of school but working FT we'd keep her covered if she didn't have coverage of her own.

If she's looking like she's not ever going to get independent coverage then we'd have a long talk.

[Cookies Galore]

I was on my Dad's insurance until I graduated college. Even though I was under his coverage, I did pay for any office copays and prescriptions. I think that's reasonable.

[Regis]

Aug 25, 2015 10:18:29 GMT -5 HoneyBBQ said:

We've done/are doing til 26. *sigh* 

I don't mind having them on the insurance, but it's annoying to still pay for the deductibles/copays for a 25 yr old. Flame away.

We're doing the same.  I'll take some of that heat, too.  

[Deleted]

We kept DS on our policy when he was in college and continued on COBRA (pre-ACA days) till the company that hired him PT brought him on FT. I think it was about 6 months.

I think if I had a kid who wasn't doing well on their own I'd help them sign up on the Exchanges, with whatever subsidy they could get based on their income. I wouldn't go out and buy dental insurance. I had that choice when I left my job a year ago and between the one-year waiting period on anything but cleaning, and the lousy max they'd pay in a given year, I decided it wasn't worth it. Same for vision- I'd go to Costco.

[musicjenny]

I was on my parent's insurance until I got married at 20, I bought the catastrophic policy through my college until my husband or I got a job that offered insurance.
I had been paying my copays and any other medical expenses besides the actual insurance since I had gotten a job at 16.
I plan on paying for the kids insurance as long as I need to until 26 but they're definitely paying the copays and whatnot once they turn 18. I managed to pay out a few thousand from my crap job and it didn't kill me.

[PK Bucko]

IDK -  I hadn't given that much thought. But I suppose I'll make sure he's covered until I cannot cover him anymore. 26 years old eh. Unless of course he lands a great job out of college with his own insurance.

[quince]

Keep them on the insurance...as long as they need/is possible. 
Adult?  Pay your own copay/deductible.

[taz157]

Aug 25, 2015 9:47:07 GMT -5 NomoreDramaQ1015 said:

My parents kept me on their insurance thru college since it was cheaper than me buying a policy and better than the student plans.  They had to submit my transcripts every semester to show I was still enrolled.

Once I got my first job I had my own insurance from there on out.

Yeah that!

[alabamagal]

My kids are 24, 23 and 21. The youngest will be in college for 2 more years so I have family coverage. I have great insurance through my job and it only costs about $100 per month extra for family coverage.

My older 2 have jobs and can get insurance through their work. But it does not cost me any extra to keep them on my insurance. It would be $100 a month extra for DS coverage not sure about DD. So I tell them to stay on mine for now.

If youngest gets a job with benefits when he graduates in 2 more years, then I will reevaluate costs.

[Lizard Queen]

I don't know. My kids are still so young that it's hard to say what I will do.  On one hand, it's harder for young adults to launch these days. On the other hand, 18 yo 's are old enough to enlist, go to war, and die for their country.  I think that you have to consider their attitudes and goals.  Also, what would they be able to get via Obamacare?  I have no idea.  I think, cover them until at least 21, I guess.  Maybe depending on those other factors after that.

[zibazinski]

DD is on the schools health insurance. I still pay her dental cleaning and check once a year. DS has great everything through COKE. He even gets rebate bcuz of good health.

[alabamagal]

DS23 can afford to get his own insurance, but why spend the extra $100 to be independent when staying on mine is "free" thanks to his younger brother. If he has any copays he will pay.

I told him to put the $100 in his wedding fund savings. ?

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

Aug 25, 2015 9:23:22 GMT -5 moneymom said:

When do/would you stop paying for your adult child's medical insurance and expenses?  Dental and vision included.  Assume they are not doing well financially.

We carried DS#1 on our insurance until he was 26 at which time the federal law kicked him off. He didn't want us to pay for his co-pays, so he rarely went to the doctor because he didn't want to pay them either. He did go to the dentist once because he was in quite a bit of pain. His father refuses to go to the dentist, so that's where DS gets his lack of cleanings philosophy. He did appreciate having it as an emergency necessity. He is doing okay financially. He was attending school the entire time, he finished his BS when he was 25 and immediately found full time employment. 

We kicked DS#2 off of our insurance when he was 23. He had already stopped speaking to us because we wouldn't let him live at home anymore and do nothing besides play video games and eat food we had paid for; he was not and is not "doing well financially". At the time he flat out refused to have a job. Now, he has a job but only makes slightly above minimum wage. When the demand by the insurance companies was made to provide birth certificates proving that a child the child of the primary insurance holder, DH wouldn't let me order DS's birth certificate. It would have cost around $20. I assume DS's mother has their birth certificates, but she wasn't in the country for me to ask her about that. 

However, it didn't cost us anything to have either of them on our insurance because we have two younger children. With our insurance, one child costs the same as any number of children. Dental cleanings would have been free. Co-pays are 20%. If there had been a true medical emergency, I probably would have paid some of the bills. We were fortunate that nothing came up. 

[TheOtherMe]

DS and BIL kept their sons on until age 26 when ACA kicked in.  Otherwise, since they are farmers, kids were off at age 18 and had to get insurance at their college.  The three oldest of four now have graduated and working and have insurance through their jobs.  Youngest is under 26 and still in college so still on mom and dad's insurance.

I got kicked off when I graduated high school.  Luckily for me, my first job had insurance that a poorly paid secretary could afford.  First thing I did, even though I did not have vision insurance, was get the glasses I had long needed. 

You have to understand that my dad wasn't making big bucks and my mother was a waitress so there wasn't a lot of money.

[nutty]

Ex still pays for the kids, he and I wouldn't have it any other way, well at least it used to be that way.

[emma1420]

Aug 25, 2015 10:18:29 GMT -5 HoneyBBQ said:

We've done/are doing til 26. *sigh* 

I don't mind having them on the insurance, but it's annoying to still pay for the deductibles/copays for a 25 yr old. Flame away.

I don't think it's unreasonable to expect kids (especially once they are working themselves) to be responsible for their own copays and deductible.  In fact, I think it's a good transition to have them start paying for those things when they are working.  Because even now, the bulk of the cost of health insurance is still the premium.