• Susan H Busch, Ezra Golberstein, and Ellen Meara.
• Susan H. Busch (susan.busch@yale.edu) is an associate professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Yale School of Public Health, in New Haven, Connecticut.
• Health Aff (Millwood). 2014 Aug 1; 33 (8): 1361-6.

AbstractSince September 2010 the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has required that insurers allow children to remain as dependents on their parents' private insurance plans until age twenty-six. Studies have shown that this provision increased coverage rates among young adults. In this article we analyze whether the provision also protected young adults from large and uncertain out-of-pocket expenses. We found that the policy was associated with a statistically significant reduction in the share of young adults facing annual out-of-pocket expenditures greater than $1,500 (decreasing from 4.2 percent to 2.9 percent), compared to an increase in the proportion of their slightly older peers facing such expenditures (increasing from 4.4 percent to 5.4 percent), a net difference of -2.4 percentage points, or 57 percent. We conclude that the dependent coverage provision in the ACA provides financial protection for young adults at a time when they often face high debt burden but low wages.Project HOPE—The People-to-People Health Foundation, Inc.

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