Rite of passage? Why young adults become uninsured and how new policies can help

Young adults (ages 19 to 29) are one of the largest and fastest-growing segments of the population without health insurance in the United States. Young adults often lose coverage under their parents' policies at age 19, or when they graduate from high school or college. Nearly two of five college graduates and one-half of high school graduates who do not go on to college will endure a time without health insurance in the first year after graduation. Three policy changes could extend coverage to uninsured young adults and prevent others from losing coverage: extending eligibility for dependents under private coverage through age 23; extending eligibility for Medicaid/CHIP public coverage to age 23; and ensuring that colleges and universities require full-time and part-time students to have insurance, and that they offer coverage to both. Young adults are a relatively low-cost population to insure, and keeping them in insurance pools may lower the average costs of group coverage.