Graduating from Dad’s Insurance Policy? Get Short-term Health Insurance

‘Insurance can be lost as diplomas are gained’ highlights Leigh Kelley at BlueRidgeNow.com. She bring up an important point for new graduates and their families. Many young people graduate from high school and college, and sometimes even unbeknownst to them, they are also graduating from their parents’ health insurance plans.

Commonwealth Fund writes that young adults, i.e. people aged 19-29, are the fastest growing group of uninsured people in the United States. It reports that 13.3 million people in this age group are currently not covered by insurance.

“38% of college graduates and 50+ of high school graduates who don’t go to college will be uninsured that first year after graduation”. said Ellen Laden from United Healthcare’s Golden Rule Insurance company in Indianapolis. “Many don’t realize they are no longer going to be insured.”

It’s often a timing issue. Being uninsured can be caused by college graduates coming off their parents’ insurance plans before the students have found full-time employment”, said Laden. In the case of high school graduates, students who are not going on to two-year or four-year educational institutions are usually no longer eligible to be on their parents’ insurance plans and must find full-time employment in order to have health care insurance, she said.

Young adults tend to believe that due to their youth and good health, they do not need health insurance right away. “The challenge is to help these young people understand that anything can happen to someone such as an accident or illness or injury regardless of their age,” Laden said.

Young people who find themselves in such a situation need to be aware that they do have options, primarily short-term insurance. This usually involves six months of coverage with most companies letting the insured choose how many months of coverage is desired. Many plans allow the buyer to reapply for an additional six months of coverage resulting in insurance for a full year, the maximum allowed under short-term guidelines.

Short-term health insurance is designed for people whose lives are undergoing a time of change, such as a student coming off their parent’s plan, a new worker who is waiting for their benefits to kick in, or a worker between jobs who finds that buying coverage through COBRA too costly, Laden said.

source: BlueRidgeNow.com