Coverage Under the Affordable Care Act

• In September 2010, the Affordable Care Act became law, extending the amount of time parents can claim their children as dependents on health insurance policies. In accordance with this act, you can keep your children on your health insurance plan until the age of 26. Unlike previous regulations, the Affordable Care Act allows your son under the age of 26 to stay on your health care plans even if he is married, living on his own, not in school or not financially dependent on you.
  
  

Adding Children to Plan

• If the Affordable Care Act standards make your son eligible to be on your health insurance plan, you can add him to it during your insurance's open enrollment period. Many employers, like Northern Arizona University, gave employees the opportunity to add children that became eligible under the Affordable Care Act right away. Check with your employer's human resources office to find out how quickly you can add your eligible son to your health insurance plan.
  
  

Exceptions

• Some insurance plans did not have to follow the guidelines established by the 2010 Affordable Care Act. As a part of the act, the federal government gave grandfathered plans until 2014 to institute the new 26-year-old age limit. These plans do not have to provide coverage up to age 26 if the dependent is eligible to receive insurance through his own plan. Self-insured plans, on the other hand, must adhere to the new guidelines. So, adding a son over the standard age of 19 to your insurance might be illegal if you are on one of these grandfathered plans.
  
  

Illegal Situations

• Though having your son on your insurance as a dependent is legal in most circumstances, there are some situations that could make this illegal. For example, you cannot lie about your son's age to keep him eligible as a dependent. In addition, you cannot misrepresent anything about your son's lifestyle--like his marital status or student status--to make him eligible. This generally applies to the grandfathered plans that have until 2014 to align with the Affordable Care Act standards.