Post from Elizabeth Chan's Blog:
Health Reform: 'A graduation gift to young adults'
This week the New York Times published an article highlighting the substantial benefits that the Affordable Care Act will have—and is already beginning to have—for young adults. Traditionally, young adults comprise the age group that is most likely to be uninsured—a full one-third of all uninsured Americans are 19 to 29.
But by 2014, most young adults will have access to coverage, and many will now have access this year, thanks to earlier-than-expected coverage promises secured from insurance companies by Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius.
The New York Times explained:
Beginning in late September, health insurers will be required to cover children on family health plans through age 25, and many companies are making the change now so new college graduates do not face gaps in coverage.
In the past, three-quarters of adult children who were insured under their parents’ employers’ plans either lost their insurance or had to switch policies when they graduated from college, with some going uninsured for two years or more….
As a Commonwealth Fund health policy expert told the Times, health reform can be seen as “a graduation gift to young adults.”
Additionally, the Times reported:
According to a report last week from the Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation that focuses on health policy, most of the 13.7 million young adults who are uninsured could gain coverage when the act goes into full force in 2014—either through public programs like Medicaid or by buying private policies on competitive insurance exchanges established by the law.
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