Side Effects: Obamacare’s “Donut Hole” for Young Adults

Kathryn Nix / April 14, 2010

College seniors are eagerly ordering caps and gowns for May graduation ceremonies.  But graduation day often brings loss as well as gain.  Many graduates will lose coverage under their parents’ health plans as soon as they get their diplomas.

It wasn’t supposed to be that way.  Obamacare promised to let “children” remain on their parents’ health plan until the age of 26. It was one of the few provisions in the law to attract bipartisan support.  Yet the hastily drafted legislation managed to botch even this seemingly simple reform.

Young adults constitute “one of the biggest groups of the uninsured,” according to the Fiscal Times.  The paper cites a Commonwealth Fund survey of 2,002 young adults that found that nearly half (45 percent) of those aged 19 – 29 lacked coverage for at least part of 2009. (more…)