Broker Broadcast
UnitedHealthcare to Fill Coverage Gap for Graduating College Students
UnitedHealthcare will work with employer customers that wish to extend the health coverage that graduating
college students currently have under their parents’ plans. We are taking this step ahead of a new federal
health reform provision that will require dependent coverage up to age 26.
As part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, young adults will be able to stay on their parents’
employer-offered or individual family health plans up until age 26. However, this extension does not begin to
take effect until Sept. 23 this year, leaving some graduating students temporarily without coverage.
We want students to graduate into a secure future, not the ranks of the uninsured. We saw an issue with this
possible gap in coverage and we are taking action ahead of the new requirements.
This offer to extend coverage applies to students who currently are covered under their parents’ fully-insured
plans offered through UnitedHealthcare, as well as those covered under UnitedHealthcare’s Golden Rule individual
family health plans. We will work closely with our fully-insured employer customers and their brokers to
implement the extension of coverage and to make sure these young adults have health coverage available to them.
Individual health plans from Golden Rule Insurance already allow all dependents to stay on the plan until
age 26, so no action is necessary for those health plan enrollees.
Accelerating the dependent coverage extension timeline for our graduating student enrollees is another tangible
step we are taking to help translate the new, complex health reform directives into workable reality.
If you have questions about extending the eligibility and coverage for graduating college students who are
currently enrolled as dependents under your health plan with UnitedHealthcare, please contact your TIE Customer Account Manager at (972) 991-6500.
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