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Dropping from Ins.

Shemadeinmyheart's picture

Our state says CS is done when child is 18 and a HS grad. SD17 will graduate in June and then turn 18 right after. We have heard from her in almost two years

Can we remove her of DHs health insurance when she ages out? Our premium won't change but we don't want to give free health insurance to a kid (adult) who doesn't want to be part of our lives.

Comments

almost.ready's picture

I'm pretty sure you can if you are the policy holder. I'd call and make sure. I tried to do the same thing through my work and I kind of felt some resistance from the lady. After telling her I wanted to remove a dependent from my coverage she said to me "yeah but because they still qualify for the insurance, you wouldn't remove them". I explained the situation and for some reason ended up leaving the skid on. That was until open enrollment of course! I made sure to drop that skid }:)

hereiam's picture

I wouldn't just drop her without contacting her and letting her know, thereby giving her the opportunity to either make other arrangements or become part of your lives. If she doesn't want to make any kind of effort, then I would let her know she's on her own.

Even when my SD stopped her visitation at 15/16, she and my husband still talked on the phone. That's the least your SD could do.

Shemadeinmyheart's picture

My DH is very sensible. He knows what she is and how she is. He doesn't feel he should allow a child to keep reaping the benefits if she won't participate in our lives. Someone above said take this opportunity for DH to talk to her. No thanks! I think when a 17 year posts on twitter incredibly mean things about her father you don't then call them and say hey....here's an opportunity to talk to me? Want health insurance.

tabby yabba do's picture

I love my adult kids (DD25 and DS23). They're great, responsible, funny, nice people. I couldn't be prouder of them.

That being said.....

Both my adult kids knew that the year they turned 18, I would discontinue covering them on my insurance if they didn't attend college full-time (I would have covered them if they had)

Why? If they want to head into the workforce with no post-secondary eduction, they certainly can choose to do so. But I know from experience, it's a hard life. It is very rarely rewarding or financially responsible working dead-end jobs. And then who will they come crying to in three years, for help with their rent, or their car repairs, or their medical bills? No thanks.

I found working dead-end jobs, and having the fear of "no health insurance" hanging over their heads for a year or two was the best motivator for them to doing something more with their lives. Was it a risk? Yes. But a risk I was willing to take.

misSTEP's picture

We dropped SD from our policy when she aged out. We hadn't seen her or talked to her for 3 years at that time (not for lack of trying!) and didn't even know her address - which the company had to have if the covered person was not living in our house.

I'm sure it made no difference to her as she probably qualifies for Medicaid as she is 20, not married and has two babies with two baby daddies, so far.