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Court filing claims 17 million young adults would lose coverage without health law
Seventeen million young Americans would lose promised access to health insurance if the Supreme Court strikes down President Obama's healthcare reform law, the consumer advocacy group Young Invincibles argues in a legal brief filed Thursday.
Some 20 million young adults between the ages of 18 and 34 currently don't have insurance, the group argues. When the full benefits of the law kick in in 2014, about 8 million young adults will qualify for Medicaid and another 9 million will become eligible for federal subsidies to buy private insurance on new state health insurance exchanges.
The group's amicus brief argues that the requirement that everyone have insurance — the crux of the legal challenges against the law — "does not impose a significant burden on young adults."
economic well-being of millions of young Americans by denying them access to affordable
healthcare."
The law has already allowed 2.5 million young people to gain coverage thanks to a provision that requires health plans to allow them to remain on their parents' family plans through age 25. That coverage could also be in peril if the law is struck down.
The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear plaintiffs challenging the law's individual mandate and Medicaid expansion on March 26, 27 and 28. A decision is expected in June, before the 2012 presidential election.
