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Health Overhaul Raised Insurance Coverage of Young, U.S. Says
The 2010 health-care law has given almost 1 million people under age 26 insurance coverage, the U.S. said today in promoting the effort’s ability to reduce the rate of the country’s uninsured.
The rate of those ages 18 to 25 who have insurance increased 3.5 percentage points, to 70 percent, or about 1 million people, the U.S. Health and Human Services Department said in a study released today. The added enrollment overcame a drop in employment that may otherwise reduce coverage, the report found.
The data shows the law is working and shouldn’t be rolled back as Republicans in Congress and those running for their party’s presidential nomination have advocated, said Kathleen Sebelius, the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services.
“It’s very disappointing to hear some people in Congress talk about repealing the law and taking away this security,” Sebelius said on a conference call.
The health-care law, signed by President Barack Obama in 2010, lets young adults stay on the insurance their parents get through work until age 26. Before the law, health insurers typically no longer covered children once they reached age 19, or age 24 when they were in school.
More young people are uninsured proportionally than the population at large. In 2010, 18 percent of people under age 65 were uninsured, according the U.S. Census Bureau. Among people aged 18 to 25, 30 percent were uninsured.
To contact the reporter on this story: Drew Armstrong in Washington at darmstrong17@bloomberg.net;
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Adriel Bettelheim at abettelheim@bloomberg.net.
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