The Associated Press

Mary Huntley’s family was caught in what she calls a never-ending cycle of health insurance.  Her 22-year-old daughter Erin was too old to be covered by her parents’ plan unless she was a full-time college student, but her chronic asthma made it nearly impossible for her to stay in school.

“We haven’t been able to get her well enough to get her through a semester in about a year and a half,” the Charleston mother said.

Huntley may not have to worry much longer. West Virginia has joined a growing number of states to pass laws that extend parents’ health insurance policy to cover their children into their mid-20s, regardless of whether they are in school.
As many as 20,000 West Virginians would be eligible for the extended coverage up to age 25 if Gov. Joe Manchin signs the legislation.

“The big backdrop here is that there are some societal patterns that have been changing,” said Susan Pisano, a spokeswoman for America’s Health Insurance Plans, an industry group. “More young people live with their parents longer, and more young people are taking longer to finish college. The age of dependency has extended itself.”
That has left millions of young people caught in situations where health insurance is difficult to come by. Although these people are on average healthier than older Americans, they are at high risk for diseases like HIV and are among the country’s fastest-growing age group for obesity and its attendant problems.

Still, insurance providers appear willing to take the risk because younger people are less costly to insure.
Nationally, about 13.7 million adults between the ages of 19 and 29 did not have health insurance in 2004, an increase of 2.5 million since 2000, according to a report by the New York-based Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation that finances health-care research.

Many young adults drop off their parents’ health insurance plans once they turn 19 or when they graduate from high school or college. The Commonwealth Fund report says nearly half of high school graduates who don’t go on to college will be without insurance during their first year after graduation.

Across the country, insurance companies have already been trying to cater to the needs of young adults, offering temporary health plans with low premiums and high deductibles.

Pisano said the insurance industry is largely comfortable with such laws. And West Virginia’s largest private insurer, Mountain State Blue Cross/Blue Shield, did not oppose the legislation, according to company spokesman Carl Callison.
If the bill becomes law, West Virginia would join Colorado, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico and Utah in extending health coverage options to more young adults, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Most of those states extend coverage to age 25, but New Jersey allows children to receive health insurance through their parents’ policies until the age of 30.

“That’s kind of an outlier,” Pisano said.

Utah was the first in the nation to pass such legislation, in 1994. The other four passed last year.

Jilene Whitby with the Utah Department of Insurance said the impetus for that state’s law was young members of the Church of Latter-day Saints who would lose coverage while doing missionary work overseas.

Sara Collins, assistant vice president of the Commonwealth Fund, said even more states are considering such laws because there are few apparent drawbacks. New York and Florida are among them.

“It’s a relatively inexpensive group of people to insure,” Collins said. “Your health-care costs at that age are low, relative to higher ages.”

Several other states have passed similar laws extending coverage, but limit coverage those who lose their health insurance because of active military service or for health reasons.

Young adults who don’t attend college are especially vulnerable to living without health insurance because the jobs available to them typically don’t provide it, Collins said.

“It’s a really precarious time for people who are just out of high school,” she said.

Manchin said he embraces the bill’s philosophy, but must first review its language and weigh its potential costs.

“If we can cover every West Virginian with an emphasis on preventive care, I’m all in favor of that,” the governor said.

Huntley is one who hopes the governor signs the bill.

“It’s been such a strain to get her insurance,” she said of her daughter. “It’s really quite dramatic that we’ll be able to get her covered.”