January 14, 2010

Dependent Coverage Expansions: Estimating the Impact of Current State Policies

This article was written by Joel C. Cantor, Sc.D., Rutgers University Center for State Health Policy, Alan C. Monheit, Ph.D., Rutgers University Center for State Health Policy and UMDNJ School of Public Health, Dina Belloff, M.A., Rutgers University Center for State Health Policy, Derek DeLia, Ph.D, Rutgers University Center for State Health Policy, and Margaret Koller, M.S., Rutgers University Center for State Health Policy. Young adults are more likely to be medically uninsured than any other age group. A significant factor contributing to the high uninsured rate among this group is the common practice of insurers to determine that children are no longer eligible dependents on their parent's plans once they turn 18 (or 23 for full-time students). With no federal statute in place to define dependent coverage, as of late 2009, 38 states have taken measures to do so on their own mandating the expansion of dependent coverage to adults in their mid-twenties and beyond. This report examines common provisions in state dependent coverage regulations and addresses the analytic approach to and challenges of estimating the impact of these policies on coverage for young adults.