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Health Care Coverage for Young Adults: An Important Update

Young adults 19 - 29 years old are the leading subset of the U.S. population lacking health insurance, with 13.7 million being uninsured in 2006. Nearly 40% of high school graduates not attending college, as well as 1/3 of college graduates, are typically uninsured at some time during their first year following graduation. Employer-based health policies cover dependents only up to a certain age; however, some states are passing laws to expand such coverage to the ages of 24 or 25 under parental policies.

Rite of Passage? Why Young Adults Become Uninsured and How New Policies Can Help, 2008 Update (Kriss, Collins, Mahato, Gould, and Schoen) was recently published as an updated Issue Brief by The Commonwealth Fund. It describes how new policies, including age expansion for dependent health insurance, could help many uninsured young adults gain coverage and prevent others from losing it.

Click here to access the Issue Brief.