Just because you become an adult does not mean that you have
to be uninsured. In the past, young
adults between 18 and 26 years of age might not have had the option of staying
insured. Dropped from their parent’s
insurance at 19 (sometimes older if they go to college), being employed in jobs
without health insurance or being unemployed are some of the reasons they did
not stay insured. In addition, individual
insurance is expensive if available to those with pre-existing conditions.
The ACA has required since September 2010 that health
insurers provide the option for young adults to stay on their parent’s plan
until they are 26. The adult child does
not have to be in college, can be married, can live away from their parents,
and does not have to be listed as a dependent on a parent’s income tax returns. If the plan is not grandfathered, the adult
child can join or remain on your patient’s plan even if you are eligible to
enroll in your employer’s plan. (Until
2014, grandfathered group plans do not have to offer dependent coverage up to
age 26 if a young adult is eligible for group coverage outside their parent’s
plan. Health plans that existed before
the health care law are considered “grandfathered” into the new system.)
According to the most recent survey estimate, as of December
2011, over 3 million additional young adults have already taken advantage of
this provision of the ACA and gained health insurance. (This includes 125,000 young adults in
Illinois.)
Prior to the ACA young adults were much more likely to be
uninsured and privately-insured young adults were about twice as likely as
older adults to lose private insurance.
According to U.S. census data, in 2009, nearly 15 million young adults
ages 19 to 29 were uninsured. This
represented about 1/3 of the young people in this age group. An overall 45% of young adults reported
delaying needed care because of costs and 58% of uninsured young adults had
difficulty paying medical bills according to a 2010 Commonwealth Fund study.
Prior to the enactment of the ACA, 37 states already had
laws requiring the continuation of dependent coverage for young adults, but the
upper age limits and definition of dependent varied. Since June 2009, Illinois had a law giving
parents with insurance policies that cover dependents the right to elect
coverage for qualifying dependents up to age 26 and up to age 30 for military
veteran dependents.
The below links provide further information:
A survey by the National Center for Health Statistics
updates the previous estimate of 2.5 million young adults to 3.1 million young
adults.
http://insurance.illinois.gov/HealthInsurance/ya_dependent.asp
http://nahic.ucsf.edu/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/CAHL-UCSF-ACA-Young-Adult-Issue-Brief-_Final_Mar22_2012.pdf
