New Jersey Extends Age Gap for Children on Parents’ Coverage

Legislation signed into law Monday, July 7, by New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine will allow employees’ children to retain coverage through a parent’s group health insurance plan until age 31.

That provision, included in a broader health reform measure, S. 1557, amends a 2006 law that had allowed older dependent children to continue coverage through a parent’s group plan until age 30.

Since the enactment of New Jersey’s original law, other states also have bumped up—generally to age 25 or 26—the maximum age employees’ older dependent children can retain coverage through their parents’ group plans.

Legislators have seen such an extension as increasing the likelihood that younger state residents will have health insurance coverage.

Because of federal pre-emption of state laws and rules that relate to employee benefit plans, the New Jersey measure does not apply to employers that self-fund their health care plans.

Filed by Jerry Geisel of Business Insurance, a sister publication of Workforce Management. To comment, e-mail editors@workforce.com