Unclear on adult child on my health insurance?

Obama's health care law, that extends health insurance coverage on adult children until age 26 has me confused. Does it matter if the child(ren) are your dependent(s)? Our current health insurance is an employer provided family plan with a premium paid by us. Are all providers required to extend this coverage? Please include any info you feel is pertinent.|||As of Sept 23, 2010, employers were required to begin providing insurance for children up to their 26th birthday. This went into effect at the company's next open enrollment period. (For most companies this is Jan 1, 2011)





The child:


- does not have to be a dependent for tax purposes.


- can be married or single


- student status is not needed


- CANNOT be eligible for insurance through thier own employer (if it's availalbe at work, it's not available through you and things like "but it's too expensive" don't matter).


- you, as the parent, must allow the child to be on the plan -- by allowing the child to be on the plan you are taking responsibility for the premiums and any medical charges, just like if they were 13.





To get the child on the insurance -- it has to be open enrollment or they have to have had insurance through another program that stopped - not becuase they stopped paying but because they are no longer eligible - like it was through school and they are no longer a student or they had their own insurance through work but they don't work there anymore.





Some government jobs may be exempt from providing this coverage. But all other employer based program are required to offer it.|||It does not matter if they are your dependents.





However, it does not extend to everyone. For example, it does not apply to children who are eligible to get health insurance from their own employers or their spouse's employers (whether or not they can afford to do so). It also does not apply to health plans that only cover employees (or only employees and spouses), and do not cover any children. If the plan covers children, then the maximum age must not be below 26, but if the plan covers no children, then nothing changes.|||children can be married and on their own - you just might not be able to add them until the next open enrollment period (end of year) unless they lost their existing insurance for some reason