Young Adults Lack Health Insurance

By THERESA AGOVINO
AP BUSINESS WRITER

NEW YORK -- Young adults between the ages of 19 and 29 are the largest and fastest growing segment of the U.S. population lacking health insurance, according to a report released Wednesday.

Young adults comprised 40 percent of the 6 million people who joined the ranks of the uninsured from 2000 to 2004, the last year for which data are available, according to Sara Collins, senior program officer at The Commonwealth Fund, which issued the report. Although young adults represent 17 percent of the under-65 population, they account for 30 percent of the uninsured non-elderly population, the study said.

There were 13.7 million young adults without health insurance in 2004, up by 2.5 million since 2000.

Collins said there were numerous reasons young adults lack health insurance. For example, 62 percent of young adults are eligible for their employer's health insurance plan, compared with 73 percent of adults aged 30 to 64. Meanwhile, 73 percent of young adults take their employer-sponsored insurance compared with 82 percent of adults aged 30 to 64.

While the report didn't discuss why young adults opt not to purchase the plans, Collins said other surveys indicated that in most cases the cost was prohibitive.

The report said Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program classify teenagers as adults the day they turn 19 years old. Often, the young adults who had been insured under those programs for the economically disadvantaged don't have an option to stay on government-sponsored programs unless they qualify for Medicaid as an adult.



Also, a 2004 Commonwealth Fund study found that among employers who offer coverage, nearly 60 percent won't insure dependent children over age 18 or 19 if they don't attend college.

Some states have recently passed laws or are considering legislation to increase the age of dependency for young adults for private insurance coverage eligibility status.

Collins said such laws would help lower the number of young adults without health insurance. She said that extending the age eligibility for Medicaid and the State Children's program would reduce the ranks of uninsured young adults.

The Commonwealth Fund is a New York-based private foundation that supports research on health care issues and makes grants to improve health care practice and policy. The study was done by examining three different federal surveys and one of the Commonwealth's own studies on health insurance.