Bill may finally cover adult children under CHAMPVA

Right now medical insurance is costing us almost $1,000 a month even though my husband is 100% disabled and I get CHAMPVA. My deductible is $2,500 a year if they were my primary insurance but we have two problems. One is Lake Nona Hospital has not opened yet and it is better to have the extra coverage for my husband if something happens and he needs to go to a hospital. The other reason is our adult daughter. Without private insurance, she wouldn't have any coverage. This is yet one more of the untold things disabled veterans families are going through. I was shocked when the VA told me adult children would not be covered under the current rules. This is the right thing to do.

Bill would extend CHAMPVA to adult children
Army Times
By Patricia Kime
Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Feb 20, 2013

A bill has been introduced in the Senate that would increase the age limit for veterans’ children to get health coverage under the Veterans Affairs’ Department’s Civilian Health and Medical Program, known as CHAMPVA, bringing it in line with the Affordable Care Act.

Sens. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Jon Tester, D-Mont., introduced legislation Feb. 14 that would allow CHAMPVA beneficiaries to keep coverage until age 26. Currently, beneficiaries lose coverage at age 18 unless they are enrolled as full-time students. Then, they become ineligible at age 23.

The bill would create program parity with age requirements of the Affordable Care Act, which now allows adult children to remain on their parents’ health insurance until age 26.

“As more and more service members return home from Afghanistan, CHAMPVA will continue playing a vital role in caring for veterans’ loved ones,” Murray said in a release. “In our ongoing commitment to keep the faith with our nation’s heroes, this bill ensures CHAMPVA recipients, without regard to their type of coverage, student status, or marital status, are eligible for health care coverage under their parent’s plan in the same way as their peers.”

The bill is similar to a law passed in January 2011 that increased coverage for adult children of Tricare beneficiaries, bringing it on par with the Affordable Care Act.
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