Perfect situation for COBRA, no? Why'd you add him to your insurance instead of just doing that? And why wasn't he on your insurance already anyway? Was there an additional charge?My 23 year-old son lost his insurance coverage end of September 2025 when his job was changed to part-time. I added him to my high-deductible insurance as a dependent, effective October 1, 2025. He had an ER visit the second week of November, he gave my insurance details as his insurance cover. Since my insurance is an HDHP, our of pocket cost appears to be about $4700 - I have not received EOB or bill yet, but I see this on the insurance web-site.
My son also received a COBRA notice at the beginning of October, saying he can choose coverage thru COBRA by 12/7/2025, with a monthly premium of about $855. His insurance coverage co-pay is $500.00 for an ER-Visit.
Question: Can he opt-in to COBRA now as the deadline is still two weeks away and ask the hospital to cancel the bill to my insurance and bill to his COBRA? That way, he will need to pay two months premium (about $1700) and the ER co-pay for a total of $2200, saving about $2500 compared to the out-of-pocket cost from my insurance.
Additional detail: My son is going back to full-time and his insurance with the employer will restart on 12/01.
Appreciate any help with steps we need to take so that the ER visit is billed to the COBRA coverage? Is it a risk to opt-in to COBRA, pay $1700 and have the claim rejected because he had coverage with my insurance at the same time?
At any rate, sounds like you have two good options for this. Either is probably fine. One will be slightly better than the other. The way you count it up, COBRA sounds like the right answer financially.
Hope he's okay.
Statistics: Posted by White Coat Investor — Tue Nov 25, 2025 12:53 am — Replies 13 — Views 929