Younger Set Lacks Insurance, Study Says

Young adults between the ages of 19 and 29 are the largest and fastest-growing segment of the U.S. population lacking health insurance, according to a report released Wednesday.

Young adults comprised 40% of the 6 million people who joined the ranks of the uninsured from 2000 to 2004, the last year for which data are available, according to Sara Collins, senior program officer at the Commonwealth Fund, which issued the report. Although young adults represent 17% of the under-65 population, they account for 30% of the uninsured non-elderly population, the study said.

There were 13.7 million young adults without coverage in 2004, up by 2.5 million since 2000.

Collins said there were many reasons young adults lack health insurance. For example, 62% of young adults are eligible for their employer’s insurance plan, compared with 73% of adults age 30 to 64. And 73% of young adults take their employer-sponsored insurance compared with 82% of adults ages 30 to 64.

Although the report didn’t say why young adults opt not to buy the plans, Collins said other surveys indicated that in most cases the cost was prohibitive.

The report said Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program classify teenagers as adults the day they turn 19. Often, the young adults who had been insured under those programs for the economically disadvantaged don’t have an option to stay on government-sponsored programs unless they qualify for Medicaid as an adult.

Also, a 2004 Commonwealth Fund study found that among employers that offer coverage, nearly 60% won’t insure dependent children over age 18 or 19 if they don’t attend college.