Call and Email Members of the Senate Education Committee in Support of AB 215

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If you have an adult child who files their own taxes, (independent), and has an annual income of less than $18,500, as well as less than $2,000 in a savings/checking account, that adult child will qualify for MediCal and receives full medical coverage. This fact will save the employee (Kaiser subscriber) $445 a month in medical coverage cost.

The adult child has to apply for medical benefits through the Department of Health and Social Services. After qualifying for MediCal benefits, the adult child will choose their medical group provider from the Department of Health and Social Services list.

THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX
Even though Obama Care allows the subscriber to keep your adult child on your medical plan until age 26, that adult child may qualify for MediCal. The subscriber (parent/employee) cannot claim any tax deduction for the adult child. The adult child must file their own taxes as independent. (Refer back to paragraph one.)

This option is applicable when you have only adult dependents. Dependents under 18 years of age do not qualify for MediCal.

My decision to drop my son from Kaiser was a pretty simple one and had mostly to do with affordability. My son was enrolled as a dependent for me on the Kaiser plan offered by the district. After the new year, when costs went up for all employees, my out of pocket for myself became $100 and my son was $820. $820 a month is an outrageous amount of money in my opinion, so I began investigating other options. Covered California (Obamacare) was one of those options. In doing some research on their site, it became clear to me that it was best for my family. I ended up choosing the top-tier Kaiser Option, called Platinum, I believe. That plan, which is almost identical to the one we had my son on in the district, allowed us to keep the same medical number and card for my son. We kept the same doctor and have the same coverage as before, but now we pay $249 a month. My family saves over $500 a month with Covered California. That’s $6,000 a year.

Signing up was easy. Using their website, it asked questions of myself, my wife and my son including tax information for the previous and current years. We did not qualify for any subsidies, and my wife and I did not qualify, but we were allowed to enroll my son. Even with no subsidies, we save over $500 a month. It seems that they are slow moving with getting up and running as our monthly bill always comes a couple weeks after it’s “due” but we just auto pay anyway and cut that out of the equation. We have used it twice now to take my son in, and there have been no issues with coverage.

I hope this information helps you.

Jared Ropelato
Will C. Wood