Adding a Child to Your Car Insurance? Here Are Ways to Hold Down the Costs.

Car insurance is expensive, and insuring young adult drivers adds to the cost. But families do have options to manage the burden.

Unlike health insurance, a parent’s auto insurance policy has no required age cutoff for children. (The Affordable Care Act allows children to remain on a parent’s health plan until age 26. After that, they must have separate coverage.)

“It’s not an age question,” said Mark Friedlander, a spokesman for the Insurance Information Institute, an industry group. Rather, young drivers’ circumstances, such as where they live or whether they are students, come into play when considering separate coverage.

Douglas Heller, director of insurance at the Consumer Federation of America, an association of nonprofit consumer advocacy groups, agreed that there was no blanket answer. “It’s more situationally specific,” he said.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/25/your-money/car-insurance-child-costs.html