Young adults account for 30 percent of the uninsured non-elderly population. There are 13.7 million young adults who lack affordable health insurance in the United States from about 2.5 million in 2000. Risk of poor health is caused from the instability of Affordable Health Insurance Coverage. Young adults who lack health insurance report that they have gone without needed health care because of costs including failing to fill a prescription, not seeing a doctor or specialist when needed, or skipping a recommended medical test or treatment.

When young adults who are just starting out in the workforce or entering college lose their health insurance there are both health and financial consequences. Young adults who are not in school full-time are more likely to go without coverage because even if their parents have insurance, the insurance will drop the child when they are no longer in a school of some kind. Young adults from low-income households are most at risk. Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program typically treat age 19 as the cut-off for children's coverage, and these young adults will lose coverage unless they can qualify for Medicaid as adults. The first year out of high school is when most young adults are without affordable health insurance because they have not gotten into school or they have not gotten into an employment that has affordable health insurance because alot don’t.

A couple of changes could help make some of these things more manageable:

We must address these gaps in affordable health coverage for young people if we want to ensure a stable and healthy workforce for the future. It is up to us to work with our government, the insurance companies, and most important, our children so that all of us don’t get in a pickle when insurance coverage is needed!

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