Question
Washington State
AT&T Wireless cancelled my sons health insurance when he turned 19. They never contacted me...they said they left mesages I never recieved and 1 phone they said they left a message on has no voice mail or answering machine. They never even tried my work number, nor the mail service, nor my e-mail. He graduate a year late and went straight from high school to college. They have cut him off from the date of graduation till the start date at college. My son has type 1 diabetes. Is this legal?
Answer
The employer isn't required to give you special notice when a dependent reaches the age limits of the plan. On a practical basis, AT&T has thousands upon thousands of employees - do you really think they can call each one individually and say "Hey, I see Billy Jr. just turned 18 and I heard he has no immediate plans to continue on in school full-time, so I'd just thought you should know he's no longer a dependent on your insurance plan through work."
When you first enrolled in the plan, you were given an insurance booklet/plan document that explained all the provisions of the plan, including the definitions of what constitues an "eligible dependent" and the fact that if a dependent no longer qualifies for coverage, YOU may contact the Plan Administrator and request COBRA continuation.
Now what you need to do is get hold of that insurance booklet and/or Plan Document and see whether the company actually can drop him from coverage. The particulars vary from Plan to Plan but often, a child will continue to be an eligible depedent until his/her 25th birthday as long as they are a full-time student and as long as they are primarly dependent upon their parents for support. I'd be surprised that your son graduating a year late from high school would disqualify him for dependent status but you need to read the exact language in the document to find out.