The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) has been a significant help to young adults, according to a report published by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI).
Among the law's provisions was a requirement that group health plans and insurers extend dependent coverage to children as old as 26, regardless of tax or student status. Previously, it was typical for dependency to end at age 18 except for college students, although some states passed laws mandating that it go beyond that point. The change may make employee benefits more valuable to workers with families, since they are more likely to provide coverage for their children.
The PPACA provision instituted the change on a national level, however, and EBRI reports that health insurance coverage for adult children increased significantly from 2009 to 2011. Based on data from the Census Bureau and the Centers for Disease Control, EBRI found that the number of individuals between the ages of 19 and 25 with employment-based coverage as a dependent increased 3 percent, from 2009 to 2010.
In the same period, the percentage of the population that age who had private health insurance coverage grew 4.8 percent. The PPACA provision and the difficulties of living without health insurance coverage may make employer-based health plans more attractive to workers, but more costly for businesses.
