Pallone: One Million Additional Young Adults Have Health Coverage Because of the Affordable Care Act

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 21, 2011

Washington, D.C. – Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr. Wednesday announced that new data released from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that the Affordable Care Act has helped one million additional young adults to get health insurance.

“The Affordable Care Act is already improving the lives of America’s families, including one million young people who now enjoy health coverage,” Pallone said. “Young adults 18-25 are most likely to go without health insurance, putting them one emergency room visit away from thousands of dollars in medical bills that would burden them for years to come.”

Specifically, data from the National Health Interview Survey shows that in the first quarter of 2011, the percentage of adults between the ages of 19 and 25 with health insurance increased by 3.5 percentage points, representing approximately 1 million additional young adults with insurance coverage compared to a year ago.

The Affordable Care Act allows most young adults to remain on their parents’ health insurance plans until their 26th birthday.

The results from the CDC were also confirmed by a Gallup survey released today. As Gallup concluded, “The provision of the Affordable Care Act that allows children up to the age of 26 to remain on their parents’ plans appears to be having an immediate effect on the number of Americans who report they have health insurance. Since it went into effect in September 2010, the percentage of 18- to 25-year-olds who report being uninsured has significantly declined by four percentage points.”

The under 26 provision is included in the Patient’s Bill of Rights and in addition to covering young people provides other significant patient protections including prohibiting insurers from dropping people from coverage when they get sick, placing lifetime limits on coverage, and denying coverage to children with pre-existing conditions. All of these reforms are already helping Americans today and must be maintained.

Last week Pallone decried Republican efforts to repeal the Patient’s Bill of Rights.

“This is one of many examples of how health care reform is working for New Jerseyans. Without the Affordable Care Act, thousands of young people in New Jersey would go without health insurance. Their health is too valuable for me to allow them to lose the consumer protections they now enjoy.”