Health Insurance Articles
Wisconsin Announces Law Requiring Young Adults Have Health Insurance
2009-11-13
The cost of decent medical care is astronomical. People without health insurance coverage are paying literally hundreds of dollars a month. One demographic seems to be affected more than others are. Young, unmarried adults, under the age of 27 have fallen through the cracks and suffer the most from health insurance inadequacy. A great majority goes uncovered due to current laws, which only allow young adults through the age of 25 to remain on a parent's policy as long as they are full-time students. They are rewarded for gaining an education and entering the work force as productive adults by having their health insurance coverage taken away. If they are lucky enough to find entry-level employment, the high cost of insurance isn't possible with low wages, or it isn't even offered.
The state of Wisconsin recognized the seriousness of this problem and passed a new law, which Governor Jim Doyle announced on October 29. Effective January 2010, all young adults up to the age of 27 can stay on their parent's policy as long as they remain single and aren't offered less expensive health insurance through an employer. Oddly, his news came right after revealing the new BadgerCare Plus Core Plan will suspend enrollment on October 9. Its primary purpose was to provide health insurance coverage for adults who meet all criteria and are unable to enroll in BadgerCare Plus, Medicaid or Medicare. The Core Plan only had funding to cover 54,000 individuals, but was receiving more than 500 applications per day since its inception in June 2009 - totaling over 60,000 applicants to date. While no conclusive determination on the number of individuals the new policy will affect, or what the premiums may be, Wisconsin Insurance Commissioner Sean Dilweg is confident cost factors will be minimal and certainly affordable to this market.
The new law unfortunately does come with limitations. Besides negatively effecting federal taxes, vital eligibility matters exist. Families must be on commercial insurance plans to be eligible. Young adults on self-funded plans, Medicare and Medicaid are not covered, nor are married couples. As usual, in spite of everything, the one segment of the population who would benefit most from this is not eligible. Families receiving BadgerCare, Medicaid, etc. are the most essential group of citizens needing affordable insurance. Just the fact that 60,000 uninsured Wisconsin residents applied for The Core Plan in under 100 days, speaks for itself.
In spite of these drawbacks, Governor Doyle is very optimistic about the plan. "This is a really remarkable step forward for people in this state," Doyle recently said. "I wish this were around when my kids were that age."
