More young adults have healthcare post-ACA implementation
By - The per capita healthcare spending for young adults with employer-sponsored insurance (ESI) grew at a rate nearly double that of other adults in the first two years of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), according to a recent study by the Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI).
The study considered young adults to be between the ages of 19 and 25, while other adults are between the ages of 26 and 64. Additionally, HCCI looked at individuals who are covered by employer-sponsored insurance as the primary beneficiary or are dependents on a spouse’s or parent’s health plan. HCCI used its national database of claims for 40 million Americans per year contributed by three national insurers.
“This study provides important insights for researchers and policy makers trying to assess the impacts of the ACA on healthcare use by young adults,” HCCI Senior Researcher, Amanda Frost said in a statement. “Clearly, healthcare use increased and in some cases strikingly.”
After 2010, the number of young adults taking advantage of healthcare services rapidly increased, reported HCCI. Specifically, emergency room visits and behavioral health admissions rose quickly. Selected Health Care Trends for Young Adults: 2007-2012 is one of the first reports to compare the number of young adults with healthcare before and after the implementation of Section 1001 of the ACA. This section allows parents to include their adult children in family health plans.
Spending on ER visits rose 15.6 percent in 2011, HCCI reported, and emergency room use accounted for approximately 13 percent of all young adult health spending. Moreover, the number of visits per 1,000 young adults increased by 10.4 percent in 2011, and an additional 3.6 percent in 2012.
The spending for young adult men grew faster than spending for young adult women. Specifically, the average spending for men rose from $1,341 in 2007 to $1,952 in 2012, while spending for women rose from $2,472 to $3,146.
Young adult mental health and substance abuse admissions nearly tripled between 2007 and 2012, the report showed, with 81 percent of that growth coming after 2009.
“The increase in spending was largely due to an increase in the number of these admissions,” HCCI said in a statement. “The number of admissions was 146 percent higher in 2012 than in 2007 for young men and 92 percent higher for young women. For young men, most of this growth was associated with admissions due to substance use.”
Federal agencies have also taken steps recently to increase access to mental health services for young people. Earlier this week, the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) awarded $99 million in grants help train new mental health providers and assist teachers and others in recognizing mental health issues in today’s youth and connecting them to help.
