Children permitted to remain on parental insurance demonstrated better access to health care

Blum AB. Pediatrics. 2012;doi:10.1542/peds.2011-1505.

States that instituted The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 — permitting children to remain on their parents’ health insurance through age 26 — demonstrated improved access to health care compared with states without those laws, according to a recently published study.

To examine the effect on access to care from state laws extending eligibility of parents’ insurance to young adults, researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine performed an analysis using data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) — an annual telephone survey conducted by the CDC in collaboration with state health departments. Researchers compared two periods of time: before the state laws were enacted (2002-2004) and after the state laws were enacted (2008-2009), whereas the time from 2005 to 2007 served as an implementation period.

According to the analysis results, access to care consistently improved among patients aged 19 to 23 years in states that enacted extended eligibility laws, but did not improve in states that did not. In addition, health insurance was observed to differentially increase by 0.2% (95% CI, –3.8 to 4.2), from 67.6% (pre-law enactment) to 68.1% (post-law enactment) in states enacting laws, and from 68.5% to 68.7% in states without.

Although young adults in both sets were similar with respect to age, gender and self-reported health status, those in states that enacted laws had higher proportions of respondents who were white, more educated, not married and worked for wages (P<.002).

“These research findings will inform our understanding of what to expect from the federal health reform provision that allows those up to age 26 to join their parents’ policy,” researcher Alex Blum, MD, MPH, said in a press release. “Our results predict that many more young people will have a personal doctor and regular checkups, and no longer have to go without care due to cost. These are critical components to provide health security to young people just when they are starting out on their own.”

Results from the analysis reported a 0.9% differential increase in personal physician/clinician identification (95% CI, –3.1 to 5), from 62.4% to 65.5% in states enacting laws and from 58% to 60.2% in states without. Researchers also observed that in states with extended eligibility laws, patients were more likely receive a physical exam and less likely to forgo care due to cost.

Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.

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