How Long Will My Health Insurance Cover My Children?

Under most individual health plans, your child’s eligibility for coverage will automatically stop when they reach age 18. Other insurance plans will continue to offer coverage to your children as long as they are full-time students up until they reach 23 to 25. That’s why you’ll definitely want to familiarize yourself with the provisions your health plan makes for students over the age of 18.

Health coverage for your child gets a bit more complicated if you’re a divorced single parent. Because of what’s known as the “Birthday Rule,” (the method insurance carriers use to determine which parent’s health plan covers their children) you'll need to find out whether your health insurance or your ex-spouse's healthcare plan will be responsible for providing for your child's medical needs.

If it turns out that your children are covered under both health plans, normally the insurance of whichever parent has custody will be responsible for paying your child's healthcare first, while the health plan of whichever parent does not currently have custody will pay second—unless a divorce court has stipulated otherwise.