Employers Aren’t Anxious to Cover 26-Year-Olds
According to a study of nearly 800 employers released last month by the human resources consultant Mercer, only about a quarter of respondents who don’t already cover children until age 26 said they planned to put the change into effect before their annual health plan renewal date…
The law says that adult children who are working and have an offer of coverage from their employer can’t stay on their parents’ plan; about half of the companies said they would seriously consider requiring proof that such coverage isn’t available.
In addition, more than a third of employers surveyed said they would consider either charging more for dependent coverage in general or changing their coverage structure from simple “individual” and “family” designations to rate tiers that vary the premium based on the number of people that participate in the plan.
Full article on how the newly enacted health reform law will affect young adults.
An issue that has yet to be worked out is who will bear the cost for young adults who decide to stay on their parent’s health plan? Employers are rightfully concerned that they will bear the cost. Employers and insurers are also afraid this will lead to adverse selection, where the only people who want to sign up for their parent’s plan are those who cannot get lower-cost plans in the individual market.
Didn’t Obama tell us this was supposed to be a free lunch?
I think this is the first of many unintended consequences.
And I suspect they are all thinking about dropping their coverage all together and turning the problem over to the government.
Covering adult children opens a whole other host of problems that you don’t see in younger kids. There’s a whole host of other health problems that young adults face that drive up the cost of care. (I’m thinking of lifestyle issues especially.)
Individual insurance generally doesn’t include maternity benefits whereas group plans do. I can see quite a few grand children being born on grandma’s or grandpa’s health plan.