Insurance Until 26 Years Old

See how to get your own health coverage.

Insurance until 26 years old. The affordable care act aca allows young adults to stay on their parents health insurance until the child turns 26. But what happens when these young adults have their 26th birthday. Children can stay on any major medical family plan until they turn 26. Twenty six is a magical age under the affordable care act aca.

If your 26th birthday is right around the corner you may have a lot of questions especially if you ve never had to purchase your own insurance before. Many parents and their children who worried about losing health coverage after they graduated from college no longer have to worry. Until a child turns 26 he or she can be kept on parents health insurance plan regardless of any other circumstances including being married not living with their parents attending school not financially dependent on their parents or even eligible to enroll in their employer s plan. The affordable care act requires plans and issuers that offer dependent child coverage to make the coverage available until the adult child reaches the age of 26.

They can no longer be offered coverage through a family plan starting on their 26th birthday. Want to learn more about the age 26 mandate. Coverage of children until age 26 the federal patient protection and affordable care act enacted march 23 2010 requires that dependent children be covered under group and individual plans at least until age 26 if dependent children are covered at all. The provision has allowed millions of 20 somethings to stay covered and not have to pay potentially high premiums on their own policies until they reach 26.

While the employer plan is required to offer coverage to employees dependent children up to the age of 26 there is not a rule that requires employees to provide coverage for their dependents timothy jost told kaiser health news. This is only true for private plans and employer coverage. How to get added to a parent s insurance plan. Under current law if your plan covers children you can now add or keep your children on your health insurance policy until they turn 26 years old.

Plans that do offer dependent coverage must allow adult children to remain on a parent s plan until age 26 regardless of whether the young adult lives with the parent is financially dependent on the parent has other coverage options is a student or is married. If a parent s health insurance plan covers dependents you usually can be added to their plan and stay on it until you turn 26.