Researchers found that one of the keystone provisions of the health law had a significant impact.
Los Angeles Times: Young Adults Healthier After Passage Of Obamacare, Study Finds
Expanding the number of young adults with health insurance appears to have improved their health and saved them money, … Starting in 2010, the Affordable Care Act allowed adults under age 26 to remain on their parents’ health plans, the first coverage expansion to take effect under the law. … The new study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Assn., suggests the coverage expansion also measurably increased the number of young adults who reported that they are in excellent physical and mental health. Researchers also found a significant drop in how much young people were paying out of pocket for their medical care (Levey, 6/17).
The Boston Globe: Young Adults Allowed To Stay On Parents’ Health Plan Report Being In Better Health
The researchers from Boston Children’s Hospital and the Harvard School of Public Health surveyed more than 26,000 young adults ages 19 to 25 both before and after the health care law was implemented and found that 6 percent more reported being in excellent physical health and 4 percent more in excellent mental health in 2011 compared to a decade earlier. Those in the control group, who were ages 26 to 34, reported no significant change in their health (Kotz, 6/17).Â
This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.