What To Do When Your Child Turns 26 While On Your Health Insurance Plan

Q.  My adult daughter and I are covered through my husband’s employer. Our daughter turns 26 this summer, but I thought we couldn’t sign up under the Obamacare Health Insurance Marketplace until open enrollment later this year. What is she supposed to do between her summer birthday and the Obamacare open enrollment in November?

A.   Now that your daughter is turning 26, she will eventually need to get her own plan.  The Affordable Care Act allows her to stay on her parents’ plan only until she is 26.   Here are a few things to do and/or consider:

1. Check with your husband’s employer to find out exactly when your daughter will lose her coverage.  It may be on her birthday this summer or it may be at the end of the plan year.

2. If your daughter wants to stay on your husband’s plan as long as possible, she may be able to extend it for up to 18 months under the federal law known as COBRA. Just know that she would be responsible for paying the entire cost of her premium, which could be expensive.

3  If her own job does not provide health insurance coverage, your daughter can apply for an individual plan using the federal health insurance marketplace.  Because Florida refused to enact its own state insurance marketplace, citizens of Florida have to use the federal site at healthcare.gov.  It doesn’t matter that she’s applying prior to the November “open enrollment period”.  Because she’s losing her coverage under your plan, she’ll be eligible for a special enrollment period.   Note that she may be eligible for premium tax credits to make coverage more affordable if her income is between 100 and 400 percent of the federal poverty level (as of July 2014 the range is $11,490 and $45,960 for a single individual).

If you are an employer or a family looking to apply for health insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act and have questions about the tax incentives available, call Bach & Jacobs and make an appointment with Board Certified Tax Lawyer Fred Jacobs by calling (941) 906-1231.