More young adults are insured in Texas
Uninsured rate for Texans ages 18-34 drops 12 percentage points, helping balance Affordable Care Act risk pool
The number of young adult Texans with health insurance is rising, which is seen as good news for the Affordable Care Act because the age group is important for the broader risk pool.
The number of young adult Texans with health insurance is rising, a new survey shows. That is seen as good news for the Affordable Care Act because the 18-to-34 age group is important for the broader risk pool.
The rate of uninsured in that age bracket dropped to 21 percent across the state in March, down from 33 percent in September 2013, a report released Tuesday by the Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy and Houston’s Episcopal Health Foundation found.
The age group has been nicknamed “The Young Invincibles” by the health insurance industry because its members are typically healthier than older Americans but often think they don’t need coverage. They compose a desirable demographic as they traditionally pay for more insurance than they use and help balance the risk pool against those who are sicker and more expensive to cover.
As the nickname implies, the sought-after group has proved elusive.
However, the number of young adults with insurance in Texas has risen by 35 percent in the nearly three years since the exchange mandated by the federal health care law rolled out. In fact, the age group now has a lower uninsured rate than Texans ages 35 to 49.
Vivian Ho, chair of health economics at the Baker Institute, said the reasons for the gains could be two-fold: under the law, young adults can stay on parents’ insurance plans until age 26, and the law
requires large employers to offer health insurance, so many have picked up coverage through their jobs.
Still, despite the significant gain, there remains a stubbornly high uninsured rate for young adults who make less than $16,000 a year. Researchers found that 56 percent of low-income young adults in Texas lack insurance and may stay uninsured.
A separate Kaiser Family Foundation study has previously found that more than 750,000 poor Texans fall into the cov- erage gap of making too much for Texas’ strict Medicaid threshold but not enough to benefit from the federal subsidies offered through the Affordable Care Act that are designed to lower premium prices. That means they currently have no realistic access to health insurance.
As price continues to be a barrier for the uninsured, many have said they will pay the tax penalty for not having insurance rather than buy a plan.
Elena Marks, president and CEO of Episcopal Health Foundation and one of the survey’s authors, said it is important going forward to find ways to reach those uninsured young adults for enrollment.
Texas continues to lead the nation in the number of uninsured overall. An estimated 4.5 million lack health insurance coverage.