NC Health Reform

Progress on the Fundamental Eight: Extended Coverage for Young Adults

Posted on 01. Oct, 2009 in A Closer Look

This is the seventh post in our analysis of the eight consumer protections  President Obama has identified as fundamental to successful health care reform. 

Protection Number Seven: Extended Coverage for Young Adults
Children must be eligible for family coverage through the age of 26.

Allowing young adults to stay on their parents’ policy until the age of 26 is a practical step that we support and have already put in practice for our insured customers, both individual and group. It helps provide young adults with affordable coverage and increases the number of young, healthy people participating in the system.

We allow parents to keep dependent children on their policies until the age of 26, regardless of whether the child is a student. We have found that many young adults need such coverage because their first jobs may not offer health benefits, or because they have gone back to college or pursued a post-graduate degree. It seems reasonable to expect that the economic downturn will only increase demand for this kind of coverage.

Most people in this age group are quite healthy, which means that making them eligible for family coverage didn’t significantly increase claims costs or premiums. In fact, the impact to policies that have dependents is about 0.25 percent of the family’s premium. Covering the adults as dependents under family coverage also reduces administration, both for BCBSNC and parents. Eligibility for group coverage can be a big help for the minority of young adults with preexisting conditions that might make it difficult to buy individual coverage.

As with most insurance design, broadening coverage in this way is a balancing act.  BCBSNC’s aim was to be as inclusive as possible without pricing family coverage out of reach for our customers. We are glad that we were able to accomplish this goal in our coverage of young adults.

Next we’ll discuss Protection Eight – Guaranteed Insurance Renewal

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