Florida Health Care Dependent Information

According to the data provided by National Center for Biotechnology Information, 27 percent of women and 33 percent of men in the USA who are between 19 and 24 lack health insurance coverage, and the figures are similar in Florida. To continue receiving benefits as a dependent under your parents' health insurance policy, you must be a full-time student.

Dependents

• If you are financially supported by another person, you are a dependent. The term has a specific meaning when considering the health benefits provided to dependents under the insurance package known as Florida Health Care Coverage. It refers to a legal spouse, children who are unmarried and under 19, children between 19 and 24 who are full-time students or have a mental or physical disability.

State Reform

• Florida legislators in 2010 reformed the state health insurance policy by increasing the age limit of dependents from 24 to 26 years. That means that, as of June 2010, young Floridians may remain on their parents' policies until the age of 26. This change was seen by many as a huge benefit for young people, who often have jobs that pay little and offer few benefits, and for whom health insurance can be very difficult to obtain on their own.

Federal Benefits

• In 2010, Congress passed health care reform legislation that promised to extend coverage to 32 million uninsured Americans. This offered another potential benefit to Florida dependents because many of them would be classified under the legislation as underprivileged citizens unable to afford health care. The costs of this coverage were to be paid through other provisions in the legislative programs, which were still being worked out as of 2010.

Economic Benefits

• Under reform legislation passed in 2010, the new class of health care dependents--those previously not treated as such by insurance providers, had one less thing to worry about in a stuttering economy. In theory, that meant job seekers--in a time of record unemployment for recent years--were free to consider accepting jobs they might otherwise have had to turn down because employers could not afford to offer comprehensive health insurance. They could take these jobs and hopefully advance in their careers to better positions with greater benefits because they had coverage under the reform legislation--at least until age 26.

Everyone Wins

• The health care reforms at the federal and the state levels created a win-win situation for the insurance companies, state and federal governments, employers, families and their dependents. The dependents, at least in theory, got the peace of mind to focus on their careers or search for employment. That was expected to mean higher employment rates and a larger, better-educated work force for companies to choose from, which could in turn create even more job opportunities, as well as state and federal tax money. And because health care costs were to be mutually shared among stakeholders, the economic burden was not expected to fall disproportionately hard on anyone.