Tag Archives: Young Invincibles

Obamacare working for young adults

Posted on May 24, 2011 | Leave a comment

The provision of the health care law signed by Obama in 2010 that permits young adults under 26 to remain on their parents’ health insurance program resulted in at least 600,000 newly insured Americans during the first quarter of 2011, according to a report in Forbes. This is great news, as this age group is by far the most underinsured in the country.

It’s also good news for insurance companies, as Rick Unger in Forbes points out, because it’s adding some necessary “young blood” to the insurance pool. Young adults are healthier than those up the age chain, so their premiums can help pay for the health care of older and sicker Americans.

It’s also good for those of us who pay a health insurance premium every month. As Ungar writes, “The more healthy people available to pay for those in the pool who are ill (translation: older people), the better the system works and the lower our premium charges should go.”

In addition, all those uninsured young people who break their leg skiing or crash their messenger bike will now be able to pay that ER bill, which means the fees won’t get passed up the chain to the rest of those in the insurance pool.

If you’re a young adult and still not covered, the “Young Invincibles’s” site is a great place to start. In a nutshell, if you’re under age 26 and lack health insurance (if you’re unemployed or your employer doesn’t offer it), you can enroll in health insurance under your parents’ plan. There’s caveats of course, but the Young Invincibles site offers a toolkit to help young people get started.

I downloaded some information from the toolkit for a young person in ILLINOIS (each state will differ slightly), and here’s what it said:

Although nearly all young adults up to the age of 26 can now join their parent’s insurance, there are a few exceptions you need to know:

  • If you are eligible for your own insurance through an employer, you may not be eligible to join a parent’s plan. You should check with your parent’s employer about this.
  • Your parent’s plan must already offer coverage for dependent children.
  •  Some plans don’t have to implement the new requirement until later this year, but all eligible plans must allow you to join before September 23, 2011.
  •  The extension is not being enforced for “retiree-only” plans, so be sure to find out what kind of plan your parent has.
  • Some states mandate coverage beyond the 26th birthday. In Illinois, the dependent coverage law extends coverage to young adults up to the age of 30, but has some significant restrictions. Current state law only requires a family plan to offer coverage to young adults who are military veterans, unmarried, and remain residents of IL. The state law also does not apply to many large employers that are self-insured, while the federal law applies to all employers offering family plans. So if you are age 26 or older, but under age 30, you can still access coverage from your parent’s plan if you meet those eligibility criteria.

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Posted in health, parents

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Young adult health insurance option kicks in today

Posted on September 23, 2010 | 4 Comments

Today’s the day—young adults under age 26 can return to their parents’ health insurance coverage and avoid those unexpected out-of-pocket bills when they break their wrist playing touch football or just need to refill the asthma inhaler.

I was in Michigan awhile back on a short vacation and talking with some fellow hotel guests over a glass of wine. The conversation turned to health care, and the mother claimed that parents were forced to cover their children now. Just another bit of misinformation floating around out there. No one is forced to cover their young adult children, but insurance providers are required to offer parents the option of re-enrolling their young adult children (if they’re under age 26) in their family health care plan at the next open-enrollment period (probably in January for most plans).

If you want to find out the real story, check out Young Invincibles. Their website is chock full of great information, personal stories, and tools to help families and young people figure out which option is right for them– including this great tool. Parents and young adults can answer a set of 3-4 questions leading to a personally tailored set of options. Very cool.

Here’s more detailed information for parents on the new requirements and your employer’s responsibilities.

And here’s an important caveat–parents have a 30-day window to re-enroll their kids in this plan. The clock starts ticking at the start of your plan’s next open enrollment. Insurance companies may try to slip in the notice of the open enrollment period with a bunch of other paper, so be alert (or better yet, ask your employer when the enrollment dates are). If you miss the window, you’ll have to wait until next year.

Also—your insurance must charge the same to cover your adult child as they would to cover any younger child. No discrimination allowed. Some states already have laws that require insurers to go beyond age 26 for dependent coverage. In those states, you will likely be able to cover your child on your plan even beyond their age 26. Find out the laws in your state.

Here’s an overview of the law in case you missed it:

The dependent coverage expansion allows your adult children under age 26 to stay on your employer-provided or private health insurance plan.

  • Your children can be covered even if they are married or have a child, but their spouses and children cannot be covered under your plan.
  • To qualify for coverage through your plan, adult children must not be eligible for another employer-sponsored insurance plan through their employer or spouse.
  • Your adult children are eligible for your health insurance plan whether or not they are a student and regardless of whether they file taxes independently (this is a big change from the previous state laws.)

Your adult children are eligible to enroll on your insurance at the start of your plan’s next open enrollment period beginning on or after September 23, 2010. For most employer-based insurance, that will be on January 1, 2011. But it could be later. Talk to your employer about the start date at your workplace.

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Posted in health, millennials

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Young adults are (surprisingly) optimistic about the future beyond the recession; parents less so.

Posted on July 6, 2010 | 2 Comments

Here’s two facts that raise some interesting questions:

A Pew survey last week finds that several groups hardest hit by this recession (including blacks, young adults and Democrats) are significantly more upbeat than their more sheltered counterparts (including whites, older adults, and Republicans) about a recovery both for themselves and for the national economy. Eighty-five percent of young adults aged 18-29 believe their finances will improve by next year. (81% of blacks and 74% of Hispanics agree.) Seventy-percent of young adults believe America is the land of prosperity, while 56% of those over age 65 agree.

Yet while young people themselves are betting on the future, their parents aren’t so sure. More than a quarter (26%) of Americans say that when their children become the age they are now, their children will have a worse standard of living than they now have. A decade ago, just 10% of Americans had this concern. (again, blacks, Hispanics, and young adults are more upbeat about their kids’ futures than are whites and older adults.)

It’s food for though as to what’s going on here. Why are the groups that are most affected by the recession the most certain it will only get better from here on out? A higher share of young adults, for example, have had to cut back hours at work (32%), switch to part-time work (15%), or be laid off altogether than older workers. The June unemployment rate for those aged 20-24 jumped up to 15.3% according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Is it a case of lowered expectations on the part middle class whites and older adults? Have their dreams deflated a little, and sunk down to earth with those who are getting inured to the tough times? Is it a case, in other words, of a race to the bottom? This recession drained the wealth of many upper middle-class households, after all. Their pessimism might reflect their suddenly emptier coffers and a sense that the ground underneath their feet is shaky–something blacks, Hispanics, and many young adults have felt for some time.

Or do the results reflect who is in the White House? Blacks and young adults in particular are ardent Obama supporters, which typically influences how one thinks about recessions (when Bush was in office, it was Republicans who were more optimistic about recovery, for example).

Whatever the reason, it seems we can all agree on one thing: it will be some time before life as we knew it resumes, and when it does, it might very well be a downsized version.  The Atlantic recently published its “big ideas” of 2010–trends that for better or worse are shaping America right now. One of them was “America is No. 2.”  eek. That’s a jolt to the psyche of most Americans. Number 2? Who chants, we’re number 2, we’re number 2? Not us.

But as we weather this perfect storm of economy recession, a jobs retrenchment, an ecological disaster in the Gulf, not one but two wars, our decimated housing values (our #1 asset), and a general sense that those buffoons in DC are even more detached that we thought, it’s not so far-fetched to think, #2. Four in ten Americans think China is the world’s leading economy today.

But hold on. Are we giving up that fast? Or is the eternal  optimism lurking in the ranks of the next generation going to carry the day?  Maybe there’s a rally on the horizon, and maybe it’s going to be driven by the next generation and some fresh ideas about how to live, how to work, and how to fix some problems that need a fresh perspective.

I had a nice chat Rory O’Sullivan the other day.  He and a couple of his friends were tired of not having health insurance and decided to do something about it. They created the nonprofit group, the Young Invincibles, and set to work lobbying for better health insurance options for young adults. They had an impact (huge) and are now turning their sights to other issues–and just got a nice grant to support their efforts. Now that’s what I call “can do.”

So I’m going to the farmer’s market to get some fresh sweet corn and a bunch of gladiolas, and enjoy those simple pleasures of summer, and put my cards on the next generation.

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Posted in GenX, millennials, politics

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