According to the National Health Interview Survey, 33.9 percent of people between the ages of 19 and 25 lacked health insurance in 2010. The following year, after the Obamacare provision had taken effect, that number dropped to 27.9 percent. By the CDC’s estimates, that means 1.6 million young people gained coverage between 2010 and 2011, and health policy analysts agreethe dramatic drop in uninsured young adults during that time span was due to the health reform law:
The estimates are drawn from a federal survey of about 35,000 households. It did not ask how the newly insured obtained coverage, but the study’s author, Matthew Broaddus, a research analyst at the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said the increased coverage for young people was almost certainly due to a provision in the Obama administration’s Affordable Care Act that allows children to stay on their parents’ insurance policies until their 26th birthday.
Joseph Antos, a health care policy expert at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, agreed that the provision of the new law was the only plausible explanation for the increase.
MORE: STUDY: Obamacare Led To Record Drop In Uninsured Young Adults | ThinkProgress.