[quote=TenaciousSD][quote=desmond]I just went through this with my son. He graduated from college in May and as I said in a previous topic has a job which does pay his health insurance. So we dropped him from our coverage, and to my shock, their was no difference in our price. A friend of mines son also just graduated, his son has a job that does not pay his insurance, my friend is able to keep his son on his policy but only through COBRA and that is very expensive. I think the only was to stay on the policy is if you are a full or part time student and under 25 or 26. I think instead of blaming the kids as the entitled ones, I think of it as the parents protecting themselves from a large medical bill if the kid has no insurance. Because if they don’t have insurance and the kid has no money, who do you think will pay?[/quote]

100% agree with this – I’d much rather pay ~$200+ per month for my kid to be covered. Although, don’t get me started on kids who are uninsured and pay that much for HD Cable + unlimited text / data cell phone plans![/quote]

I get it if you are self-insured and you pay your own premiums in full. But what if you’re only footing 25% off the bill and the company is footing the remaining 75%? Doesn’t everyone else end up eating the extra premium cost, or doesn’t the employer get creative and just end up cutting employees to cut the cost?

Why can’t a parent just pay 100% of the kid his/her own insurance (assuming there’s no pre-existing condition) instead of the company he/she works for paying say 75% of the bill and possibly shoving that down to everyone else, even when the kid is already at working (albeit on a temporary basis)? Is it really that much more expensive for a parent to buy a healthy kid his/her own insurance, when supposedly he/she is already suppose to be independent?