LMA Information Station: Health Insurance for Young Adults

Please see below for a roundup of information and updates on health insurance for young adults under the Affordable Care Act.

1. Blog post by Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius

2. Your Weekly Address: Health Reform Starts to Kick In

3. Blog post: Around the Web: Health Reform Helping Young Adults

A Long Overdue Change to Help Young Adults Get Coverage

Posted by Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on May 10, 2010 at 11:20 AM EDT

As families around the country celebrate high school and college graduations this month, they can also cheer another piece of good news: as part of the Affordable Care Act, our Administration is issuing regulations today that will allow young adults to stay on their parents’ health insurance plans until age 26.

This change is long overdue. For years, getting a diploma also meant losing your health insurance. And whether you went on to college or not, it was often hard as a young person to find affordable coverage. Overall, Americans in their twenties were twice as likely to go without health insurance as older Americans.

I saw this firsthand as a mom. When my sons graduated from college, they both found jobs. But like a growing number of employers, neither of theirs offered health insurance. Fortunately, they were both healthy and could afford to buy coverage. But I often wondered: what if one of them had a preexisting condition like diabetes? What if our family had fewer resources?

For too many young Americans over the years, the answer to these questions was simply to go without health insurance and hope that you stayed healthy.

Thanks to the rule we’re establishing today, no young American will have to take that risk ever again. Under this policy, insurers will be required to allow any American under the age of 26 who doesn’t get health insurance through their job to stay on their parents’ plan. To get more details, you can read this fact sheet or Q&A.

This provision was scheduled to go into effect in September. But we didn’t want any young person to needlessly go without health insurance this summer. So over the last few weeks, we’ve reached out to insurance companies and asked them to make this change immediately. And to their credit, we’ve gotten a terrific response.

So far, every major insurance company – more than 65 in total – and several major self-insured organizations have said they will provide continuous coverage for young adults this summer. That’s great news for graduating seniors and their families who will get added security in exchange for premiums that are only expected to rise by .7%.

And it’s not a bad deal for insurance companies or employers either. Insurers will save the administrative costs that would have added up as they dropped people in May only to sign them back up in September. And businesses have already been notified that the tax exclusion for employer health benefits will apply to all the young adults who choose to stay on their parents’ plans.

It’s only been seven weeks since President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act, but Americans are already seeing the benefits. In addition to this new security for young adults, small business owners have been notified about a new tax credit to help them provide health coverage for their employees.

Seniors who have hit the prescription drug donut hole will begin getting $250 rebate checks next month to help them afford their medications. And we’ve been working closely with states for weeks to develop a new insurance option for uninsured Americans with preexisting conditions.

After years of feeling like they were losing control over their health care, Americans are finally getting a glimpse of a better future. And in the months to come, we’re going to continue to work diligently with our partners across the country to deliver the promise of this new law and make our health care system work better for the American people.

Kathleen Sebelius is Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/05/10/a-long-overdue-change-help-young-adults-get-coverage

Remarks of President Barack Obama

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Weekly Address

Washington, DC

It has now been a little over a month since I signed health insurance reform into law. And while it will take some time to fully implement this law, reform is already delivering real benefits to millions of Americans. Already, we are seeing a health care system that holds insurance companies more accountable and gives consumers more control.

Two weeks ago, four million small business owners and organizations found a postcard in their mailbox informing them that they could be eligible for a health care tax cut this year – a tax cut potentially worth tens of thousands of dollars; a tax cut that will help millions provide coverage to their employees.

Starting in June, businesses will get even more relief for providing coverage to retirees who are not yet eligible for Medicare. And a little over a month from now, on June 15th, senior citizens who fall into the prescription drug coverage gap known as the “donut hole” will start receiving a $250 rebate to help them afford their medication.

Aside from providing real, tangible benefits to the American people, the new health care law has also begun to end the worst practices of insurance companies. For too long, we have been held hostage to an insurance industry that jacks up premiums and drops coverage as they please. But those days are finally coming to an end.

After our administration demanded that Anthem Blue Cross justify a 39% premium increase on Californians, the company admitted the error and backed off its plan. And this week, our Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, wrote a letter to all states urging them to investigate other rate hikes and stop insurance companies from gaming the system. To help states achieve this goal, we’ve set up a new Office of Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight, and will provide grants to states with the best oversight programs.

In the next month, we’ll also be putting in place a new patients’ bill of rights. It will provide simple and clear information to consumers about their choices and their rights. It will set up an appeals process to enforce those rights. And it will prohibit insurance companies from limiting a patients’ access to their preferred primary care provider, ob-gyn, or emergency room care.

We’re holding insurance companies accountable in other ways, as well. As of September, the new health care law prohibits insurance companies from dropping people’s coverage when they get sick and need it most. But when we found out that an insurance company was systematically dropping the coverage of women diagnosed with breast cancer, my administration called on them to end this practice immediately. Two weeks ago, the entire insurance industry announced that it would comply with the new law early and stop the perverse practice of dropping people’s coverage when they get sick.

On Monday, we’ll also be announcing the new rule that allows young adults without insurance to stay on their parents’ plan until they’re 26 years old. Even though insurance companies have until September to comply with this rule, we’ve asked them to do so immediately to avoid coverage gaps for new college graduates and other young adults. This also makes good business sense for insurance companies, and we’re pleased that most have agreed. Now we need employers to do the same, and we’re willing to work with them to make this transition possible. These changes mean that starting this spring, when young adults graduate from college, many who do not have health care coverage will be able to stay on their parents’ insurance for a few more years. And you can check healthreform.gov to find a list of all the insurance carriers who have agreed to participate right away.

I’ve said before that implementing health insurance reform won’t happen overnight, and it will require some tweaks and changes along the way. Ultimately, we’ll have a system that provides more control for consumers, more accountability for insurance companies, and more affordable choices for uninsured Americans. But already, we are seeing how reform is improving the lives of millions of Americans. Already, we are watching small businesses learn that they will soon pay less for health care. We are seeing retirees realize they’ll be able to keep their coverage and seniors realize they’ll be able to afford their prescriptions. We’re seeing consumers get a break from unfair rate hikes, patients get the care they need when they need it, and young adults get the security of knowing they can start off life with one less cost to worry about. At long last, this is what health care reform is achieving. This is what change looks like. And this is the promise we will keep as we continue to make this law a reality in the months and years to come.

Thanks so much.

View the video here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/05/08/weekly-address-health-reform-starts-kick

Around the Web: Health Reform Helping Young Adults

Posted by Sarah Bernard on May 12, 2010 at 04:02 PM EDT

On Monday HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius posted about new regulations related to health reform that let young adults under 26 stay on their parents' health plans. If you missed it, you now have plenty of other options to learn all about it:

HowStuffWorks explains the basics

Watch yesterday's webchat with the Secretary and Rock the Vote

Follow the Q&A with About.com Guides

Read about what Yahoo! readers want to know

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/05/12/around-web-health-reform-helping-young-adults