Health Insurance 

Young adults get a break with their parents' insurance

Partner: 
Los Angeles Daily News
Neon Tommy
Pasadena Star-News
San Gabriel Valley Tribune
Torrance Daily Breeze
Whittier Daily News
Summary: 

Health reform offers up a big benefit for young adults who haven’t been able to get their own health insurance. Many of them will be able to return to their parents’ insurance policies, up to age 26. This provision is expected to give hundreds of thousands of young adults a bit of breathing room in their hunt for decent medical coverage. (Also published in the LA Daily News, the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, the Whittier News, the Torrance Daily Breeze, and Neon Tommy).

Impact Summary: 

Health reform offers up a big benefit for young adults who haven’t been able to get their own health insurance. Many of them will be able to return to their parents’ insurance policies, up to age 26. This provision is expected to give hundreds of thousands of young adults a bit of breathing room in their hunt for decent medical coverage. (Also published in the LA Daily News, the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, the Whittier News, the Torrance Daily Breeze, and Neon Tommy).

Results
LA Daily News: Young people get a break with their parents' insurance
Deborah Schoch and Diya Chacko | September 25, 2010
Nikki Roberts, a stylish production assistant, says she is still astonished to have landed on her feet in Hollywood. "I feel so blessed to be working in movies and television. It's what I've always wanted to do," said Roberts, 24, of Studio City, who is freelancing at Paramount Studios. But her dream comes at a price. Like many aspiring young people in the entertainment industry, Roberts lacks health insurance. She lost coverage under her parents' plan two years ago when she graduated from college, and she can't afford to get a plan on her own. Recent treatment for intense stomach pain had her in a panic over the potential for expensive surgery.
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Results
Pasadena Star-News version
Deborah Schoch and Diya Chacko | September 25, 2010
Benin Marshall, 19, paid a price for his high school diploma. After graduating from Pasadena High School last year, he was bounced from his mother's health insurance plan. He regained coverage as a full-time student at Pasadena City College, he said, but lost it again when he left to work full-time. "It's a drag. If I hurt myself, I could be in a huge amount of debt," said Marshall, of El Sereno, a lanky young artist with a wide smile whose current job lacks benefits and who cannot afford insurance of his own. Leery after tearing a ligament in a skateboard accident last year, he is now running more and skateboarding less.
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Results
Young Adult Vignettes
Deborah Schoch and Diya Chacko | September 25, 2010
TATIANA RANGEL, 20, El Monte, soon-to-be-student Tatiana Rangel says that her life is "on hold." She's waiting to hear if she's gotten into certain classes at Pasadena City College required for her major. She's waiting to hear if she's gotten a job at the new Yogurtland in Pico Rivera. And she's waiting to hear if she qualifies to get back on her parent's health insurance plan under the federal mandate after being uninsured for more than two years. Browsing the bookshelves of the Old Pasadena Barnes and Noble, Rangel, dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, spoke matter-of-factly about being removed from her parents' Blue Cross plan after she graduated from El Monte High.
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Results
Neon Tommy version: Health Insurance Help On The Way For Young Adults
Deborah Schoch and Diya Chacko | September 25, 2010
Burbank screenwriter-waiter Charlie Biscotto, 24, is a member of a burgeoning sector of the U.S. economy: young, well educated and uninsured. His college diploma came with a price. He promptly lost his health insurance two years ago when he graduated from American University in Washington, D.C. Today, like so many twenty-somethings in Hollywood's shadow, Biscotto works at jobs lacking health benefits. He paused a moment when asked if he had emergency-only health insurance. "I have car insurance," he said. "Does that count?" Now, bona fide health coverage may be within reach for Biscotto and hundreds of thousands of other uninsured young adults.
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Results
San Gabriel Valley Tribune/ Whittier News version
Deborah Schoch and Diya Chacko | September 25, 2010
Tatiana Rangel, 20, of El Monte says that her life is "on hold." She's waiting to hear if she's gotten into certain classes at Pasadena City College required for her major. She's waiting to hear if she's gotten a job at the new Yogurtland in Pico Rivera. And she's waiting to hear if she qualifies to get back on her parent's health insurance plan after being uninsured for more than two years. A provision in the new federal health reform law may let her, and others aged 19 through 25, return to their families' plans until their 26th birthdays. Currently, many young people lose that coverage when they turn 19, although full-time students often can keep it until age 23.
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