Health Care Law Changes for 2011: Adult Children Included in Parents' Insurance

[Harry Hope]

Source: ABC News


Jan. 1, 2011

Health Care Law Changes for 2011: Adult Children Included in Parents' Insurance
Obama's Health Care Law Says Your Kids Can Be Covered up to Age 26

By NINA T. GROTH

Under President Obama's Affordable Health Care Act, which was signed into law on March 23, 2010, insurers must offer parents the option of keeping their adult children covered under their medical plan until age 26. This mandate will go into effect for most medical insurance plans whose benefit year begins Jan. 1, 2011.

Most health insurance plans previously dropped children from parental insurance plans once they turned 19 or graduated college.

This controversial insurance modification is seen by many Americans as an extension of childhood for adults in their 20s, while for others, the measure is necessary to end the insurance gap that affects many young people.

A 2008 survey conducted by the National Institutes of Health showed that about 30 percent of adults between the ages of 20 and 29 do not have health insurance, a circumstance largely brought on by large numbers of young adults taking nontraditional, temporary or low-paying jobs that do not come with conventional employee benefits such as health insurance. That makes this age group the largest without health insurance.



Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/medical-insurance-benefits-include-adult-children-year-2011/story?id=12517610