Community: Leslie's Blog

[Leslie]

On January 1, 2009, the State of Illinois' Public Act #95-0958 went into effect. This Act allows unmarried young adults, up to the age of 26, to remain on their parents health insurance plans. If the young adult has served in the military this age limit is extended up to age 30. According to the Act, a person should have at least 90 days after January 1st, 2009 to add his/her child back on to his/her health insurance policy. Otherwise, one must wait until the next open enrollment period offered by the employer. Of note, there is NO stipulation that the child needs to be in college to be eligible for this coverage.

[Time For Change]

Hi Leslie! This website is a wonderful resource for consumers. Kudos to you for your efforts! As consumers we can force change on the industry.

I wanted to clarify one thing on the change to the dependent age limitations in the state of Illinois - they don't take place until July 1, 2009. If a dependent child who is currently on a plan exceeds the maximum age prior to 7/1/09, they can elect COBRA or IL State Continuation (for groups under 20 employees) and then enroll/rejoin the group plan as an Adult Child effective 7/1/09. Following is a link to some Frequently Asked Questions you may find helpful: http://www.eiu.edu/~humanres/forms/Public_Act_FAQ_020509.pdf.

[Ill in Illinois]

How useful is this legislation? It basically helps out only those young adults whose parents have insurance and are both prosperous and close enough to their grown-up children to want to keep them covered. It also doesn't appear to apply if the parents live out of state.

It will help a few, but it's a Band-Aid on the problem of uninsured young Illinoisans.