Health Status of Young Adults with Insurance Coverage Before and After Affordable Care Act Passage

The purpose of this study was to assess changes in health status of California young adults with insurance coverage before and after passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

For this cross-sectional descriptive study, electronic health record information for young adults between ages 18 and 25 years enrolled in a large Southern California Health Plan in 2008, 2010, or 2015 was obtained (N = 665,686). Absolute changes and standardized annual differences in demographics and age-sex-race standardized prevalence of Elixhauser health conditions for pre-ACA (2008-2010) and post-ACA (2010-2015) periods were calculated.

The number of young adults enrolled in the Health Plan increased by 145,000 (65%) during the ACA transition with a shift toward low-income young adults. The increase in high-deductible insurance plans observed pre-ACA stabilized with a standardized annual difference of 0.22 pre-ACA vs 0.05 post-ACA. The prevalences of obesity and other health conditions between pre-ACA and post-ACA periods essentially were unaltered and comparable between young adults who became new members (< 1 year) and those with long-term memberships (≥ 3 years).

In this California health care system, the health status of new young adult members was comparable to that of long-term members. Future research should assess whether these young adults retain their health insurance coverage after turning age 26 years and being removed from their parents' insurance plans.