How Long Am I on My Parents' Health Insurance if I Don't Go to College?

The Affordable Care Act has expanded the length of time parents can keep children on their health insurance policy. Effective January 1, 2014, adult children can stay on their parents' plan until the age of 26. This eligibility is the same whether the adult child is enrolled in college or not.

Your college enrollment or lack thereof doesn't influence your eligibility to remain on your parent's health insurance plan. However, you must meet the age requirement to qualify. In accordance with the Affordable Care Act, adult children may be added or kept on a parent's health insurance plan until they reach 26 years of age. Prior to the enactment of the ACA, insurance companies were free to remove an adult child once he turned 19, although some companies made an exception for adult children attending college full-time.

Under the ACA, adult children who qualify to be on their parents' insurance plan cannot be excluded for other demographic or lifestyle reasons. This means adult children remain eligible for coverage even if they have the following characteristics: financially independent, married, enrolled in school, eligible for enrollment in employer's health insurance policy, or don't reside in parental home.

Your parents can enroll you on their health insurance plan during the open enrollment period or other specialized periods of enrollment for their particular insurance company. These periods differ among carriers, although late fall is a common time of year insurance companies hold enrollment. However, you're not required to accept coverage under your parents' plan. You are free to elect a different insurance policy, whether you purchase it on your own or receive it through your employer.

Circumstances may arise in which choosing to stay or enroll in your parents' health insurance plan may not be a good option. For example, if you work or study abroad, the doctors and hospitals available to you are likely to be out-of-network providers, which means the cost of service would be significantly higher or not covered by your parents' policy at all. In this instance, you may wish to enroll in a policy in your current location or forego insurance until you return to the states. Another consideration arises if you plan to become pregnant while enrolled on your parent's plan. While most policies provide maternity care, it is often limited to the insured and her spouse, and doesn't include children of the insured. You may want to examine the services available to you under your parents' policy before making the decision to enroll.