Needed Coverage When Parents Threaten to Cut Off Insurance.

This is a complex situation (what isn’t with health insurance, lol.) so I’ll break down the basic facts. This is not about me, but a friend I am helping. She’s already 18, lives in Massachusetts, and is taking a gap year from high school (graduated 2024) before college. She’s currently not working, and we’ll call her S.

S is on her parent’s commercial health insurance, who have elected to continue coverage for her until she’s 26. BUT, S wants to seek out gender affirming medical care. Her parents are HIGHLY opposed to the service, threatening to cut her off her coverage. Her mom told her she’d be checking monthly statements to see if the coverage is being used for those services by their adult child.

S wants to get MassHealth (our Medicaid) insurance to afford the care. Are there steps/actions S should take in a specific order to ensure that there are no insurance gaps/pitfalls during the switch over? S is insulin dependent, and doesn’t know what might happen if her parents cut her off and she can’t afford her meds…

Advice we’ve received so far:

When I spoke to MassHealth directly, I was told that while S may qualify for MassHealth or ConnectorCare while still under their parents’ insurance, she would most likely have to pay an unsubsidized premium (due to already being insured) before notifying her parents to cut her off their commercial plan, then re-submit information for MassHealth, and hope her premium drops.

Before anyone asks, no S does not want to put off this care. She’s talked about it with her parents for at least 4 years, and they’ve always denied her services. Now that she has the opportunity to switch into a new health insurance, she wants that care now!

Tl;Dr:

What are the steps we can take so S doesn’t go without insurance and can pay for her meds?

Can S’s parents just cut her off their plan??? We’re still not sure, S heard that not all insurances allow you to drop a dependent like that out of open enrollment.

Before anyone suggests S should just get a full time job — she’s trying, but wants to pursue looking into MassHealth as a backup.