Updates To 'Child Only' Health Insurance Plans

One of the most popular provisions of Health Care Reform is the requirement that health insurance companies provide coverage for all children, even if they have a pre-existing condition that would have, in the past, made them ineligible.
One of the consequences of this law is that in most states, health insurers no longer offer ‘child only’ policies. They will take children with any condition if and only if the child is part of a family plan with at least one of the parents. This is great for families that couldn’t secure coverage for a sick child.

Not so great for other families that had relied on ‘child only’ plans because:
(a) The parents’ employer only offers employee only coverage.
(b) The parents’ employer only offers assistance with the employee only portion of the premium and no assistance for dependent coverage, or
(c) It was usually cheaper to put a single child on a ‘child only’ plan than an employer sponsored Employee & Child(ren) plan.

Many health care providers charge the same rate for Employee & Child(ren) coverage whether the employee has one or ten children. If a child could qualify, a cost saving strategy would be to review the difference in premium between the Employee & Child(ren) plan and a ‘child only’ policy. Many times, the employee could save hundreds of dollars per year.
If your child is currently on one of those plans, don’t worry. Insurers will not drop them. However, you should know that if you drop the plan for any reason, you won’t be able to get back…at least not any time soon.