Under the Affordable Health Care Act, nearly 2 million dependents up to age 26 — a group of people that has traditionally gone without coverage to save money — can stay on their parents’ health care plan by 2014 .
Previously, states including Alabama, California, Hawaii and North Carolina did not have laws on record that required extended dependent coverage to young adults.
Now, the federal government must create a
collective definition of “dependent” by considering each state’s conditions. In Oregon, a dependent was defined as an unmarried child up to age 23, elderly parents or disabled adults.
The new law also bridges the gap for young adults who, because of their age or because they are graduating this year, were ineligible to continue on their parents’ plans.
For graduating Linfield seniors, the new act means sitting down to discuss joining their parent’s plan.
“It will be much cheaper than trying to find an individual plan,” senior Jennifer Sacklin said.
She said she hopes to join a teaching assistantship program in Spain this year, which means she would have less time to find a stable job with benefits than her peers.
“I thought the reform was absolutely necessary,” Sacklin said.
After moving to Los Angeles from Mexico at an early age, junior Denisse Chacon said receiving health care was more of a luxury than a necessity.
“Any reform is better than what has been,” she said. “My family has always struggled.”
Before the reform, Sacklin said she still would have considered purchasing a plan for herself, despite its costliness.
“In my immediate future, I don’t see myself getting a job with benefits,” she said.
While the reform directly affects Sacklin and Chacon, neither said they followed the debate closely because of the jargon-laden media coverage.
“It was hard to know what the debate was about,” Sacklin said. “No one was saying how this will specifically affect me.”
Now that most of the politics that plagued the media coverage are beginning to wane, young adults such as Sacklin and Chacon are taking a larger role in informing themselves.
“It’s good the government is trying to do something to bridge the gap for us,” Chacon said. “I would have gone without it otherwise.”

This is the third part in a three-part series about health care.

Chelsea Langevin
Senior reporter Chelsea Langevin can be reached at [email protected]