Minneapolis, Minn. (April 19, 2010) – UnitedHealthcare, a UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) company, will extend the health coverage that graduating college students currently have under their parents’ plans until the new health reform provision requiring dependent coverage up to age 26 is fully implemented.
As part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, young adults will be able to stay on their parents’ employer-offered or individual family health plans up until age 26. However, this extension does not begin to take effect for employer-sponsored plans until September 23, 2010.
UnitedHealthcare is acting to eliminate this coverage gap that some graduating students may face when losing their parents’ UnitedHealthcare health plan coverage upon graduation, and will work with its employer customers to implement the extension.
“We want students to graduate into a secure future, not the ranks of the uninsured, so we are working with employers to make sure these young adults have health coverage available to them ahead of the new requirements,” said Gail Boudreaux, President of UnitedHealthcare. “Accelerating the dependent coverage extension timeline for our graduating student enrollees is another tangible step we are taking to help translate the new, complex health reform directives into workable reality.”
This extension of coverage applies to college students who currently are covered under their parents’ fully-insured health plan offered through UnitedHealthcare. Individual family health plans through UnitedHealthcare’s Golden Rule business already allow all dependents to stay on the plan until age 26 and enrollees do not need to take any action.
About UnitedHealthcareUnitedHealthcare provides a full spectrum of consumer-oriented health benefits plans and services to individuals, public sector employers and businesses of all sizes, including more than half of the Fortune 100 companies. The company organizes access to quality, affordable health care services on behalf of approximately 25 million individual consumers, contracting directly with more than 600,000 physicians and care professionals and 5,000 hospitals to offer them broad, convenient access to services nationwide. UnitedHealthcare is one the businesses of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), a diversified Fortune 50 health and well-being company.
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