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Senate Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2019 - 2020
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | October 10, 2019 01:30 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Senator Steven J. Santarsiero and Sen. Michele Brooks |
| To: | All Senate members |
| Subject: | Allowing Young Adults to Stay on Their Parent’s Health Insurance Until Age 26 |
| In the near future, we plan to introduce legislation to allow a young adult in Pennsylvania to stay on his or her parents’ health insurance plan until the age of 26. The federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) allows children to stay on their parents’ health insurance up to the age of 26. Prior to the enactment of the ACA, Pennsylvania was one of 37 states that allowed children to remain on their parents’ insurance after age 18; unfortunately, Pennsylvania was in the minority of those states by only offering an additional year of insurance eligibility up to 19 years of age. Therefore, if the ACA were to be repealed, Pennsylvania law for coverage of children would revert back to age 19. The Pennsylvania Insurance Department estimates that there are 89,000 young adults in Pennsylvania who have insurance because they were able to stay on their parents’ insurance policy. Under current Pennsylvania law, a child can stay on his or her parent’s insurance until he or she reaches age 19. Our legislation would increase that age to 26 to bring the Commonwealth in line with federal law. The provision in law which allows an employer to offer insurance coverage for their employee’s child up to age 30 would remain as it currently is. We hope you will join us in cosponsoring this legislation. |
Introduced as SB982