Why was the cost of health coverage a worry for young people?
Before 2010, prior to the passing of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), approximately 47 million (~15 percent) Americans were without any kind of health care coverage. Young adults between the ages of 18 and 25 made up 31.4 percent of this group. Nearly one third of the Americans who lacked health care were young adults! Pre-ACA, it was common that when an individual turned 18, they would be dropped from their family’s’ health plan and left with the worry of finding their own coverage. While there was a bit of a buffer for individuals who went on to higher education — under the previous system, young adults were eligible to stay on their parents’ insurance until they graduated college — many young adults experienced significant worry how they would be able to obtain and afford health insurance. When income, which is commonly lower for young adults than for well-established older adults, has to cover basic necessities as well as transportation and tuition, health insurance falls low on the list of priorities.
How has the ACA alleviated this worry?
In 2010, the practice of kicking a dependent off of a family plan when he/she turned 18 was stopped. Now, 7 years later, this practice seems unthinkable. Dependents turning 18 after the year 2010 can thank the Affordable Care Act (ACA) for putting a stop to this practice. The ACA, which has long been a Republican target to dismantle, has allowed for dependents between the ages of 18 and 25 to remain on their parents’ health insurance plans regardless if they are enrolled in college or married. This particular feature of the ACA has shown to be such an important factor for decreasing the number of uninsured that the Trump Administration and the Republican-controlled congress, who unsuccessfully tried to repeal the act, are vowing to keep this component in any future Republican healthcare proposals.
Studies have shown that since the implementation of the ACA, insurance coverage among young adults ages 18-25 has significantly increased across all races and ethnic groups, with minorities showing the greatest increase in coverage. In fact, a 2012 study conducted by Dr. Benjamin D. Sommers, affiliated with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, showed that the insurance coverage for 18-25 year olds has increased 2.9 percent since the introduction of the ACA. According to another study published in the Health Services Research Journal, “ACA-dependent coverage expansion led to a rapid and substantial increase in the share of young adults with dependent coverage and a reduction in their uninsured rate in the early months of implementation.” Additionally, the findings for this study show that:
In models controlling for prior state expansions, but without interactions between state and federal reforms (Model 1), we attribute to the ACA-dependent coverage rules a more than 25 percent rise in the share of targeted young adults with non-spousal dependent coverage (a 5.3 percentage point increase) and a nearly 10 percent drop in their uninsured rate (a 3.5 percentage point decline) between 2009 and 2010. This decline in the uninsured translates to about 716,000 young adults gaining coverage as a result of the ACA in 2010.
Why is it important to extend health coverage to young people?
A study published in the Sociological Inquiry found that the safety net provided by the ACA has led young adults to rate their health at a better quality than they did pre-ACA. This is important for moral, as well as economic reasons; ensuring that young adults have coverage allows them to lead healthier lives, which in return allows them to work more years and contribute to the economy for a longer period of time. This age group represents a large percentage of the working population, which means that they are paying taxes and contributing to the Social Security program that benefits the non-working population. The health of young Americans is very important to the vitality of American society, because a healthy young population who can consume and produce items and services in the market is crucial for economic stability. With access to healthcare being one less major thing to worry about, young people can focus on becoming innovators, entrepreneurs, and ambassadors.
How is this feature of the bill insufficient?
Most healthcare experts and advocates have applauded the ACA for creating this element of health coverage for young Americans. While it is satisfying to know that President Trump seems to understand the necessity of young adults having health insurance, it is saddening to know that 14.5 percent of people between the ages of 19-25 still do not have health insurance. As discussed above, this age group of Americans is an important population in society. While the ACA has made significant progress in insuring young Americans, healthcare policy should continue to work to cover ALL Americans, regardless of their age or household income. Perhaps one way of ensuring that all young people are covered is extending Medicare or Medicaid to them or making free healthcare an incentive for attending a higher education institution. Whatever the solution may be, the problem that needs to be brought to light is that there is still a significant number of young adults who lack the coverage needed to maintain their health, which is needed for them to prosper and ultimately needed for our country to prosper.
