Find your actual end date
The federal rule lets you stay until 26, but the day coverage stops depends on the plan. Many employer plans end it on your birthday or at the end of that month, some run to the end of the year, and a parent's Marketplace plan generally covers you through December 31 of the year you turn 26. A few states, New York, New Jersey and Florida among them, let young adults stay longer on certain state-regulated plans, usually at extra cost. Have your parent get the date in writing three months ahead.
Your options
- Your own employer's plan is usually the cheapest route, because the employer pays part of the premium. Losing the parent's plan lets you enroll mid-year, typically within 30 days.
- A Marketplace plan through HealthCare.gov or your state's exchange comes with premium tax credits based on your income, and the enrollment window runs from 60 days before to 60 days after you lose coverage.
- Medicaid covers low-income adults in the states that expanded it, with no enrollment window.
- COBRA keeps you on the same plan for up to 36 months, but you pay the full premium plus a 2 percent fee, which is usually several hundred dollars a month.
- A catastrophic plan, open to people under 30, has low premiums and a very high deductible.
How to compare plans
Four numbers matter. The premium is the monthly price. The deductible is what you pay before the plan pays much of anything. The out-of-pocket maximum is the most you can owe for covered in-network care in a year. The network decides whether your doctors are covered at all. A healthy 26-year-old can reasonably choose a lower premium and a higher deductible, provided the deductible sits in savings. Check your prescriptions against each plan's drug list, and confirm the network with the doctor's office, since directories are often out of date.
Mistakes to avoid
Enroll so the new plan starts the day after the old one ends, and refill prescriptions before the switch. Avoid short-term plans and health sharing arrangements that look like insurance, cost less, and can refuse pre-existing conditions or cap payouts. Going uninsured carries no federal penalty now, but several states charge one, and a single emergency room visit can run into five figures.
Tip COBRA works as a backstop for a short gap. You have 60 days to elect it and the coverage is retroactive, so if something goes wrong in those weeks you can elect it and pay the premiums then.
