Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2012 Oct;47(5):1773-90.
doi: 10.1111/j.1475-6773.2012.01458.x. Epub 2012 Aug 27.

Early impact of the Affordable Care Act on health insurance coverage of young adults

Joel C Cantor  1 , Alan C Monheit, Derek DeLia, Kristen Lloyd
Affiliations

Early impact of the Affordable Care Act on health insurance coverage of young adults

Joel C Cantor et al. Health Serv Res. 2012 Oct.

Abstract

Research objective: To evaluate one of the first implemented provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), which permits young adults up to age 26 to enroll as dependents on a parent's private health plan. Nearly one-in-three young adults lacked coverage before the ACA. STUDY DESIGN, METHODS, AND DATA: Data from the Current Population Survey 2005-2011 are used to estimate linear probability models within a difference-in-differences framework to estimate how the ACA affected coverage of eligible young adults compared to slightly older adults. Multivariate models control for individual characteristics, economic trends, and prior state-dependent coverage laws.

Principal findings: This ACA provision led to a rapid and substantial increase in the share of young adults with dependent coverage and a reduction in their uninsured rate in the early months of implementation. Models accounting for prior state dependent expansions suggest greater policy impact in 2010 among young adults who were also eligible under a state law.

Conclusions and implications: ACA-dependent coverage expansion represents a rare public policy success in the effort to cover the uninsured. Still, this policy may have later unintended consequences for premiums for alternative forms of coverage and employer-offered rates for young adult workers.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Ai C, Norton EC. “Interaction Terms in Logit and Probit Models”. Economics Letters. 2003;80(1):123–9.
    1. Buchmueller T, DiNardo J. “Did Community Rating Induce an Adverse Selection Death Spiral? Evidence from New York, Pennsylvania and Connecticut”. American Economic Review. 2002;92(1):280–94.
    1. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) n.d. “Local Area Unemployment Statistics: Tables and Maps Created by BLS” [accessed on February 8, 2012]. Available at http://www.bls.gov/lau/tables.htm.
    1. Callahan ST, Cooper WO. “Uninsurance and Health Care Access Among Young Adults in the United States”. Pediatrics. 2005;116(1):88–95. - PubMed
    1. Cantor JC, Belloff D, Monheit AC, DeLia D, Koller M. “Expanding Dependent Coverage for Young Adults: Lessons from State Initiatives”. Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law. 2012;37(1):99–128. - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms