HARRISBURG, Pa.—Health insurers will have to give Pennsylvania employers the option of buying policies that offer coverage to employees’ adult dependent children until age 30 under legislation signed into law last week by Gov. Ed Rendell.
Under the measure, S.B. 189, a child through age 29 could retain coverage through a parent’s group health care plan so long as several conditions are met.
Those conditions are that the child is unmarried and has no dependents of his or her own, is a resident of Pennsylvania or enrolled as a full-time student at an accredited institution of higher education, and is not covered under another group or individual health insurance plan.
Insurers will be allowed to increase premiums to cover the cost of extending coverage.
The measure applies to policies bought by employers from commercial health insurers and health maintenance organizations. Employers that self-fund their health care plans are exempt due to a provision in the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act that pre-empts state laws or rules that relate to employee benefit plans.
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