Question about dilemma with Child Health Plus and Essential Plan (low income, health insurance)

[7 Wishes]

Hello, this is for someone with knowledge on Child Health Plus and the Essential Plan.

I have an 18 year old son and a 16 year old daughter. They are on Child Health Plus via MVP Health Care because it had better health insurance benefits (in terms of copays) at a lower monthly cost than my employer's plan (in terms of income level I pay $15/month per child, to have them on my employer's plan would together have another $40 taken out of each biweekly paycheck).


I got a notice saying my son's insurance will be dropped on July 31 because he "aged out" of it (it ends at the end of the month of your 19th birthday). While the plan was to just "bite the bullet" and add him to my health insurance, I learned since that am being let go at the end of August and will lose my health insurance (no way could I afford COBRA).

I am virtually certain I will be able to get on something via the Essential Plan (would probably do either Fidelis Care or MVP, I live in Westchester County and have been on MVP in the past, I heard good things about Fidelis) or maybe even Medicaid though I don't know how long you have to suddenly be low income before getting that. I was on Medicaid for a bit when I lost my job during the Great Recession, and was on the Essential Plan for about a year a few years ago when I was between jobs and piecing together part-time work that did not offer adequate insurance and was below the income levels for Essential Plan so I have some familiarity with both.




As such I have the following questions:

1) Can I in advance signup on the Marketplace for myself and my wife (she works p/t with no insurance, currently furloughed and on "extended unemployment") for September 1 or do I have to wait until I am dropped? Can my son be added to whatever I get (Medicaid or Essential Plan) since he is under 26 or does that only apply to employer based health plans?

2) Assuming "yes" to both questions in #1, what does my son do for the 1 month gap in between when he loses his insurance and I lose mine? I'm not sure it is even possible to add him to my job's insurance for just one month and if so it will be very messy, especially since as part of their cost cutting they are changing insurance providers in October.

3) Can my son apply for his own insurance on the Marketplace, or "no" because he's a dependant on my tax form? He has a very very bare bones p/t job at KFC that he only does when in college so would he qualify for Medicaid under this?


Any info you have on this will be much appreciated, thanks!