Many young adults in US lack health insurance

NEW YORK, May 31 (Reuters) Americans in their 20s are one of the largest segments of the population lacking health insurance, and new research suggests the problem is growing.

In 2004, nearly 14 million Americans between 19 and 29 years old were uninsured, an increase of 2.5 million since 2000, according to a report by the Commonwealth Fund, a private research foundation that focuses on health and social issues.

The findings, based on data from government and Commonwealth Fund surveys, suggest that the age of 19 or just after graduation from high school or college are crucial turning points in young Americans' health coverage. At these ages, private and public health plans often cut off benefits.

Dependents who were covered under their parents' employer-sponsored insurance are usually dropped at age 18 or 19 if they are not full-time students. Similarly, low-income teenagers insured under Medicaid or the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) lose coverage at age 19 unless they qualify for Medicaid as adults, which often does not happen because of the program's requirements become more strict, according to the report authors, led by Dr. Sara R. Collins, who is a senior program officer at The Commonwealth Fund.

The result is that the health coverage problem is most acute among low-income young adults, who often do not attend college and frequently have jobs with no health benefits.

At any given time, 40 percent of 19- to 23-year-olds who do not attend college or are part-time students have no health insurance, according to Collins and her colleagues. A Commonwealth Fund survey in 2005 found that among workers ages 19 to 29, 43 per cent of those who earned less than 10 dollars an hour were uninsured.

But even many college graduates face a significant period without health insurance, the study authors say. Of students who graduated between 1996 and 2000, they report, 38 per cent were uninsured for at least part of the following year, with 21 per cent going without coverage for six months or longer.

Collins and her colleagues offer three broad measures they say could address the problem. Regarding Medicaid and SCHIP, they suggest Congress require states to extend coverage several years beyond age 18.

''Such a policy change,'' the researchers write, ''could help the 2.9 million uninsured young adults ages 19 to 23 with incomes under 100 percent of poverty.'' Similarly, they add, more states could require private insurers to extend coverage for unmarried dependents beyond age 19. Several states have already done so; in a law that took effect this month, New Jersey is requiring most group health plans to cover single adult dependents up to age 30.

States could also ensure that all colleges require students to have health coverage, as many institutions already do, Collins and her colleagues suggest. These schools offer health insurance to students who lack it, with the cost ranging from 500 to 2,400 dollars a year.

Requiring all colleges and universities to have such policies, the researchers note, would help cover the 2 million full- and part-time students between 19 and 23 who lack health insurance.

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