While insurers have a couple more years to prepare for the individual mandate and health exchanges, according to a new Gallup poll, effects of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act on 18- to-25-year-olds can already be seen.
Gallup reports that adults aged 18 to 25, a group that was suffering declines in 2008 and 2009, have increased their employer-based health insurance percentage by almost a full point from 2011. Meanwhile, adults aged 26 to 64 were found losing employer-based health insurance in the second quarter of 2012 — 55.9% compared to 56.7% at year-end 2011.
Young adults have become less likely to become uninsured overall since the fall of 2010, when the health care provision allowing them to stay on their parents’ plan until the age of 26 was enacted.
Overall, the percentage of all American adults with employer-based health insurance, at 44.2%, is a figure “which has generally decreased since 2008,” according to the report; government-based health insurance came in at 25.7% in the second quarter of 2012, which puts it at much higher levels than were seen in 2008 and 2009.
Both the 18- to 25-year-old and the 26- to 64-year-old demographics contributed to the increase in government health insurance. Nearly 20% of 18- to 25-year olds receive health coverage from a government program, compared to 18.9% in 2011 and 16.3% in 2008.
The 13.4% of 26- to 64-year-olds who reported having government-based health insurance last quarter is up from 12.6% in 2011 and is higher than the 11.2% in 2008.
Justin Stephani is the associate editor of
