Can I Cover My Stepson on My Health Insurance?

Under health insurance plans you, your spouse, and your children can be covered. This includes your stepchildren and adoptive children. In 2010, The Obama administration signed a bill into law that extends the length of time children can remain on your health insurance. The law also relieved many obstacles to covering your children, such as eliminating residential clauses previously used by insurance companies.

Affordable Care Act

• The Affordable Care Act was initiated to help Americans achieve a greater level of care, extend coverages to many young young people and to expand the coverages available. One of the provisions of the Affordable Care Act extends coverage for children through age 25 for all health insurance where individual companies previously cut off coverage at a mixed age ranging from 18 to 25. Stepchildren are considered children for insurance purposes.

Eliminate Residence Issues

• Before the ACA was passed, insurance companies could drop coverage on a stepchild who did not live at home or attend a university full time. Under the new law, children can remain on their parents' healthcare plans even if they move away from home. The purpose was to make health insurance possible for millions of young people who were previously unable to afford their own policy but ineligible for the policies of their parents.

Eliminates Student Requirements

• The ACA also changed the way college attendance affected insurance. Insurance companies commonly disqualified children in their early twenties unless they were enrolled in full time educational programs under the old policies, but the new law requires coverage to be available to a specific age regardless of the residential or educational status of the children. For example, your stepson could get married and move into an apartment with his new wife without being disqualified from his parent's coverage, a major difference in how insurance availability works.

Children of Recipients

• If your stepson is covered under your insurance policy, the coverage does not automatically extend to his children. Your insurance company is required by law to cover your stepson, but it is not required to provide health care to his offspring. In this situation, his children may be eligible for low-cost insurance through government programs such as Medicaid.

Employment and Insurance

• Even if your stepson has a full time job, he can be covered under your health insurance plan. Unless his employer offers a health insurance to employees, your stepson is not required by law to seek out an individual plan of his own. On the other hand, if your stepson has insurance available through his employer or other organizations, he can be dropped for your coverage.