Graduation gifts from the Affordable Care Act
Last month, we celebrated Mother’s Day gifts from the Affordable Care Act (ACA). This month we celebrate graduation gifts from the ACA.
Effective Sept. 23, 2010, employer-sponsored insurance plans that offer dependent coverage were required (beginning with their new plan years) to extend that coverage to young adults up to age 26 on their parents’ plans. Young adults no longer have to be students, IRS-defined dependents, or even living with their parents to qualify. This provision of the law allows young adults to maintain critical health care benefits while they establish themselves in a job or career.
This is great news for young adults graduating from high school and not going to college who might not otherwise have access to health care coverage. This is also great news for college graduates who have not yet landed that first job, or have a waiting period before they are eligible to participate in their new employers’ health care coverage, or found jobs that do not include health care benefits. These young adults can remain (or re-enroll) on their parents’ employer plans until they reach age 26.
Over the last decade, young adults have faced the highest risk of being uninsured. In 2009, U.S. Census data reported that up to one-third of young adults, ages 19 – 29, were uninsured, or nearly 15 million young adults. It appears, however, that the tide is beginning to turn. A recent Gallup Poll, conducted between January and April 2011, reported that 24 percent of surveyed young adults, aged 18- 26, were uninsured. This represents a significant decline from poll results in 2010 (28 percent) and 2009 (28.6 percent). Among respondents aged 27 – 64, the uninsured rate increased or remained the same for every other age group.
The dramatic decline in the rate of uninsured in the 18-26 age range is attributable to the Affordable Care Act. According to Kaiser Health News, at least 600,000 young adults have gained coverage since that provision of the ACA became effective last September. This pace could outstrip the federal estimate of 1.2 million young adults who would gain coverage in 2011 – great news for the young adults who gain coverage.
There are, however, threats to the Affordable Care Act as federal policymakers grapple with the federal budget and the federal deficit. It is very important for young adults benefiting from this provision to contact their U.S. Representatives and their U.S. Senators to let them know how much they appreciate their gift of health care coverage.
For more on the Affordable Care Act and Michigan, see the Michigan Consumers for Healthcare Advancement’s fact sheets.
– Jan Hudson
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Categories: Blog: Factually Speaking, Health Care, Human Services | Tags: Affordable Care Act, children and families
