Do you pay for your adult child’s medical bills?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They need to be in college for you to pay Anything else.....steer your kid towards a job providing benefits....military, union related, full-time with benefits and etc....if they're dead beat and lost, take them off your insurance....only way for them to grow up.

What did your parents do? I feel some of these questions are silly.....

Medical costs were nothing like they are now.
We didn’t have health insurance growing up. We just paid The bills. We did have catastrophic insurance in case we got hit by a truck. We weren’t rich at all, but the bills got paid. There’s such an unpredictable, unreasonable pricing structure for medicine and health services now. absolutely kids can stay on our plan till 26. It’s no additional cost to us. Id like to see the whole system stabilized with better access for everyone. The fact that a person’s type of job determines their health care is crazy. my kids friends with European citizenship are planning to leave, even though they grew up here, and went to college here and have valuable skills for our country, bc they feel like they can’t count on American health care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How can they still be on your insurance as an adult with a job? Genuinely curious.

They don’t sign up for insurance at their job and don’t have to pay premiums. We have a family plan so whether 1 or 5 underage 26 kids are on our plan, it doesn’t increase our premium.

Let your kids grow up. This is pathetic. No, my parents didn't pay my therapy bills.

New poster here. If parents' insurance can cover child's insurance for free, I don't see the point of having the child pay it. DH gets free health and dental insurance through work, and it covers kids 'til 26. I don't see why I would want my children to pay a premium when DH has such a great insurance plan that is free and covers the entire family. That is just good budgeting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How can they still be on your insurance as an adult with a job? Genuinely curious.

They don’t sign up for insurance at their job and don’t have to pay premiums. We have a family plan so whether 1 or 5 underage 26 kids are on our plan, it doesn’t increase our premium.

Let your kids grow up. This is pathetic. No, my parents didn't pay my therapy bills.

New poster here. If parents' insurance can cover child's insurance for free, I don't see the point of having the child pay it. DH gets free health and dental insurance through work, and it covers kids 'til 26. I don't see why I would want my children to pay a premium when DH has such a great insurance plan that is free and covers the entire family. That is just good budgeting.

Agree

[Anonymous]

We paid for medical bills until kids were out of college and employed. One DC stayed on our insurance plan until age 26 - it didn’t cost more because younger DC was still in college and on the plan. Younger DC got a job with fully paid for health insurance out of college so was not on our plan after that.

My kids had summer jobs in college but definitely didn’t make enough to cover medical bills. We have a high deductible plan so that means that most years we essentially pay out of pocket. And definitely wouldn’t have wanted them to skimp on necessary medical appts or meds to save money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It depends. We have a high deductible plan and if they get stuck with a high bill before we hit it, we will pay for part of it. We meet our deductible every year because of some high drug costs. So this year, DC had to get a CT scan for what turned out to be kidney stones and all of it will go to meeting the deductible as it starts Sept 1. The drug companies reimburse for part of the cost, so we don’t end up paying the whole deductible. Because of the timing, DC is set to pay the entire CT cost. I don’t think that is fair.

Is this a college kid or working adult?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They're on mine and reimburse me for the cost monthly. It's way cheaper that way. If they bought literally the exact same plan as a single individual it would cost them a lot more. I'm all for independence but I hate wasting money!

If going to have them on your plan, this is better way to do it but still runs up the lifetime amounts if plan has that.

Didn't lifetime limits disappear with the Affordable Care Act?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How can they still be on your insurance as an adult with a job? Genuinely curious.

They don’t sign up for insurance at their job and don’t have to pay premiums. We have a family plan so whether 1 or 5 underage 26 kids are on our plan, it doesn’t increase our premium.

Let your kids grow up. This is pathetic. No, my parents didn't pay my therapy bills.

New poster here. If parents' insurance can cover child's insurance for free, I don't see the point of having the child pay it. DH gets free health and dental insurance through work, and it covers kids 'til 26. I don't see why I would want my children to pay a premium when DH has such a great insurance plan that is free and covers the entire family. That is just good budgeting.

People on this thread keep on conflating having your kid on your insurance with paying their bills, as if they are the same thing. As many posters have said, family health insurance plans usually do not increase in price with extra family members, so there can be no cost to having an adult child on your plan. Paying their unreimbursed therapy bills is something else altogether.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:my parents kept me on their plan until 26 because it didn't cost them any extra, but I paid any copays or not covered services.

I think this is reasonable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Like unreimbursed therapy bills? They are still on my insurance But have their own job.

Unless they have a good job, therapy is a luxury they probably can't afford without someone footing the bill

+1 I would siesta hrlp if they were struggling to pay therapy bills. I would not want it to be a barrier to them not accessing care. It’s hardly “pathetic.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They're on mine and reimburse me for the cost monthly. It's way cheaper that way. If they bought literally the exact same plan as a single individual it would cost them a lot more. I'm all for independence but I hate wasting money!

Great idea. My son will be 18 next year, and of course we'll pick whichever cheapest option is available.

[Anonymous]

I would continue to help pay for therapy if you can afford it, OP, or at least work out a transition plan for your DC to gradually start paying more of the bill themselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Like unreimbursed therapy bills? They are still on my insurance But have their own job.

Unless they have a good job, therapy is a luxury they probably can't afford without someone footing the bill

+1 I would siesta hrlp if they were struggling to pay therapy bills. I would not want it to be a barrier to them not accessing care. It’s hardly “pathetic.”

+1. In a mental health crisis the last thing I want is for kid to not access mental health treatment if they couldn’t afford to pay on their own. If my kid needed insulin and couldn’t afford it, I would absolutely help pay or help them find it. If another family member needed treatment for cancer, I would help. Isn’t that what family is about?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Like unreimbursed therapy bills? They are still on my insurance But have their own job.

No, I'd tell them to find an in network provider if they don't want bills.

I keep my kids on my insurance till they fall off at 26 (even if they get it at work, because then it is secondary) but I don't pay the bills-they do. If my dc in school had a big bill, yes I'd help with that. But the working adults pay-it's good insurance so the bills are not crazy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Like unreimbursed therapy bills? They are still on my insurance But have their own job.

No, I'd tell them to find an in network provider if they don't want bills.

I keep my kids on my insurance till they fall off at 26 (even if they get it at work, because then it is secondary) but I don't pay the bills-they do. If my dc in school had a big bill, yes I'd help with that. But the working adults pay-it's good insurance so the bills are not crazy.

There is something cruel about getting your kid to rely on a luxury like therapy and then pulling it away. Unless they are doing very well, most young professionals can not hope to afford therapy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How can they still be on your insurance as an adult with a job? Genuinely curious.

They don’t sign up for insurance at their job and don’t have to pay premiums. We have a family plan so whether 1 or 5 underage 26 kids are on our plan, it doesn’t increase our premium.

Let your kids grow up. This is pathetic. No, my parents didn't pay my therapy bills.

NP. Why? I don't see anything wrong with what PP is doing.