Pelosi Backs Extension Of Parental Health Benefits For Kids To Age 27

A new provision being rolled into the unified House health care bill would allow young adults to stay on their parents' health care plans until they turn 27, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters Tuesday.

Flanked by young adults from 30 states, Pelosi and Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) joined the bill's sponsor, first-term Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper (D-Penn.), to support extending eligibility for a parent's insurance plan well past graduation from high school or college. Given that nearly one-third of America's uninsured are aged 19 to 29, Pelosi said the bill would both expand coverage and reduce the amount of subsidies the government would need to provide for coverage.

"Young adults are the most uninsured group in the country. They often lose coverage at age 19 when they graduate from high school or a few years later when they graduate from college. Once they enter the workforce, they face new obstacles to getting insurance," Pelosi said. "Now with this legislation that takes them to their 27th birthday, we take them a long way down the path of some independence, some liberation to follow their aspirations right out of school.

The proposed federal law is not a new idea -- some 20 states already have eligibility extensions for adult dependents to at least age 25 -- but it would take the issue out of the hands of states who haven't given parents of young adults the option. Thirty states also offer individual coverage to young people beyond the age-19 cutoff for S-CHIP, lasting for varying periods of time. Utah was the first to pass such a law, back in 1994, but New Jersey offers the longest young-residents benefits, which last until a resident turns 30 so long as he or she claims no dependents.

State extended-eligibility laws generally don't limit insurers from jacking up premiums to cover older dependents, however. The three House Democrats did not clarify Tuesday whether they would seek to include cost controls in the provision.

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Comments

[Stephen L Beckley]

08:53 PM on 10/20/2009

Trying to find out if the dependency requirement for employer-sponsored coverage is going to be maintained. If yes, then the young adult would have to continue to live with his or her parents and prove that he or she is dependent upon them financially. Employers are now all about using dependent eligibility audits to limit access to their plans.

[Sabrina Messenger]

03:16 PM on 10/15/2009

Of course, this is presuming that the parents actually have health insurance? Quite a few don't . What's needed are viable JOBS with insurance so these young adults are able to live independently, not be stuck tied to the apron strings!

[AngelaQuattrano]

05:06 PM on 10/15/2009

Of course it is. Americans have been distracted for decades from the task of making sure that health care is affordable and available to all by "special interest" guarantees that ought to be for everyone.

[Grannysue]

01:51 PM on 10/14/2009

The age should be 25 not 27, they should be finished with college by age 25 and ready to go out on their own, unless of course you live in the U.S. and can't find a job.

[lvdragonlady]

11:21 AM on 10/14/2009

If the kids are living with the parent and single with no kids of their own, the parents show be able to provide medical coverage for them if the parents want to. Some of the rules that insurance companies come up with to limit the coverage we pay for just does not make any sense.

[Gregory Curtis]

11:16 AM on 10/14/2009

27 years old...your kidding me.

[FoonTheElder]

10:08 AM on 10/14/2009

Enough of this jack-a## silliness of piecemeal health care. Single payer now!

[AgeofReason]

09:22 AM on 10/14/2009

This will help many people, even if it doesn't solve the whole problem. My daughter decided to take a semester off from college and therefore just lost her coverage. She still lives at home and is single. Her retail employer only offers medical coverage to their management employees even though she works full time. We weren't thrilled with her choice to take time off, but we would have preferred to keep her on one of our employer's plans. When she is finally eligible for coverage, she'll have to wait a year for anything that was known about before losing coverage to be covered by her new plan. It's a ridiculous policy that children who live at home (with no dependents of their own) cannot be covered.

[bluerednot]

09:08 AM on 10/14/2009

UGH! There has to be a better way! This does not solve the real problem - and it will add to the general mess that we have now. What happens to the 25 year old with no-coverage parents? If a 24,25,26 year old has a job with the option of health insurance - will they be required to take that ? if yes, who will monitor this ?
Yes it will help in certain cases - but why, why can't a more straightforward universal answer be implemented. Why do we have to assemble some bizarre patchwork quilt of a healthcare system to get to the point where people can have their healthcare needs addressed.

[amaycatbaker]

09:01 AM on 10/14/2009

Would that cover the kids that had kids? Or would the chip program cover the grandchildren? Don't get me wrong this might help... only if the insurance companies approve... of course the child can't get sick or the parents might get booted...

[justsaynosarahp]

08:57 AM on 10/14/2009

Note to self: First, figure out how to get own health insurance.

[Chris]

08:19 AM on 10/14/2009

Why age 27?

[NeoStar9]

08:36 AM on 10/14/2009

Usually it can take that long before a person is finally settled with their own coverage if things go well. I didn't really get my first full time job until I was 24/25. After college I went to graduate school . After undergraduate I lost my coverage under my parents plan so I had to be really careful until I got my own. I usually didn't get sick but I can be accident prone at times and I do suffer from migraine headaches. So that meant buying a lot of over the counter, trying to stop things before they got bad, and not going to the doctor because I simply couldn't afford it. Just glad my dad is a former registered nurse. A LOT of people don't have at that to fall back on.

Even then many people right out of high school won't be in a good position or job until a few years later if they are lucky. It can take even college graduates a few years before landing a job, especially in this economy. I still have some friends from high school that went to college that still have to work more then one job because they can't find a full time one in their field. That was before things really went downhill too.

[AgeofReason]

09:24 AM on 10/14/2009

Lots of university's are offering affordable student plans now and requiring students to use them if they don't have other coverage. That helps people in grad school anyway. But I hear what you're saying!

[MakeAWish]

08:14 AM on 10/14/2009

My Democratic spineless senators who voted for this worthless insurance bill, can kiss my vote GOODBYE! The fact that these spineless, worthless, democrats didn't EVEN TRY to put through a single payer system says it all!.

The same goes for Congress, no single payer, then I'm done with all of you and will vote for anyone except politicians from this single party system that represents corporations instead of the people who elected them.

[raker]

07:01 AM on 10/14/2009

No more bandaids, thank you. People need health care at age 28, and 29, and 30, and for the rest of their lives. And family coverage for a decent plan is staggeringly expensive. Give us single-payer universal health care now.

[SOSTED]

07:23 AM on 10/14/2009

I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.
Will Rogers


If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free!
P.J. O'Rourke

In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one part of the citizens to give to the other.
Voltaire (1764)

Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you!
Pericles (430 B.C.)

No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session.
Mark Twain (1866)

Talk is cheap...except when Congress does it.
Unknown

The government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other.

[tjeffersonlovr]

07:28 AM on 10/14/2009

Again I say beautiful!!!! 2012 is on the way

[raker]

08:08 AM on 10/14/2009

People become very thrifty when the government spends dollars for the public good, but don't notice or care when they spend a billion a week in Iraq, giving millions and millions to war profiteers. There was barely a peep when the odious Medicare Part D created a financial boon for drug companies and insurers. So I don't think much about their new-found concern for the deficit.

As for health care, I'd rather pay a modest tax increase in exchange for health care coverage than pay huge sums to health insurers in exchange for crappy coverage and denials of benefits.

[mdchurch]

06:23 AM on 10/14/2009

Would somebody please just take Nancy Pelosi out of our misery. I don't know where she gets her bright ideas, but this one is really out in left field. I fully support parental rights to insure their children, but at age 21 they are adults. I think parental coverage should end here, with the only exception being for college students until they complete an undergraduate program or reach the age of 25, whichever comes first.

If we want people to be independent, we have to teach them to be that way. The message that Pelosi and her cronies in Washington keep sending is that they want everyone to become DEPENDENT on the government. That is why they are taking over everything from banking, autos, and now trying to get socialized medicine.

The notion that parents would want to pay for health insurance for their children until they are 27 is also unrealistic. Parents are having trouble paying their own insurance and the situation doesn't look to be improving. Will the government will fine the parents if they have a 26 year old with no insurance?

Lastly, Health care doesn't belong in the hands of the government. They argue that they need to intervene to protect us from rising health care costs, when in reality the rising costs have paid for the campaigns of the very politicians that support government health care. It is an endless circle of greed and corruption that must be broken to have any real reform.

[boyoboy]

07:12 AM on 10/14/2009

It's good to be independently uninsured? There is now a much longer transition time in which kids have the ability to be independent earners, much less able being able to maintain health insurance. Young people aren't even able to get jobs much less jobs with healthcare right now.

Oh, and if you insure one kid under your policy, you might as well insure 10. The cost doesn't change. I have a 22 YO who is in school. I have two young children insured under my police. My 22 YO doesn't cost me one more dime to insure.

[mdchurch]

07:39 AM on 10/14/2009

I will agree that there is a problem with young adults being able to make a living, especially with the current economy. But if you do your homework, you will see that the financial crisis that we now face was created intentionally by the government to strip wealth from the middle class and force people to become more dependent. The housing bust and current decline of the dollar are just the beginning of Obama's goal of fundamentally transforming America. Glenn Beck did a great piece yesterday on where we are headed. Check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXSUUiuV2_Y

The job problem was created by the same people claiming to have a health care fix. Health care is important, but no different from life insurance or insurance for your car. It is your responsibility to take care of your health and insurance is just part of the equation. If Washington truly wanted to fix health care, they would stop allowing lobbyist and special interest to control the system. I am fed up with the rhetoric about universal care and the so called public option.

The reason that health care is so expensive is because the government allowed it get that way. The entire system is corrupt and many of our elected and non-elected officials are beneficiaries of big health care.

[ALYankees12]

05:01 AM on 10/14/2009

We wouldn't even need reform if it wasn't for the stupid free market jacking up costs for everyone. Oh, wait, check that, there hasn't been a free market in health care since WWII, just a bunch of government intervention.

[SOSTED]

07:25 AM on 10/14/2009

I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.
Will Rogers


If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free!
P.J. O'Rourke

In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one part of the citizens to give to the other.
Voltaire (1764)

Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you!
Pericles (430 B.C.)

No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session.
Mark Twain (1866)

Talk is cheap...except when Congress does it.
Unknown

The government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other.