Summary
Coverage of Dependent Children to Age 26 Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
PPACA’S ADULT DEPENDENT CHILD MANDATE: Recent laws require that group health plans and insurers make dependent coverage available for children until they attain the age of 26 regardless of tax, student, or dependent status as it relates to financial support. The overall increase in employment-based coverage due to newly enrolled 19-25-year-olds in 2011 ranges from 680,000 to 2.12 million individuals, and these costs are expected to increase health insurance premiums about 0.7 percent in 2011, 1 percent in 2012, and 1 percent in 2013.
SIZE OF ENROLLEE POPULATION: This study finds these estimates may understate the size of the population that might enroll in their parents’ employment-based coverage. If the initial enrollment estimates are too low, the effect of the age 19-25 provision will be higher.
EBRI’s Spring Policy Forum: Retirement Income Adequacy—How Big Is the Gap and How Might the Market Respond?
EBRI POLICY FORUM: The Employee Benefit Research Institute May 2010 policy forum addressed the topic “Retirement Income Adequacy: How Big Is the Gap and How Might the Market Respond?” This was EBRI’s 66th policy forum held in Washington, DC, and was attended by about 100 policy and professional experts. This article provides highlights of new EBRI research and experts’ reactions to it.
THE RSPM MODEL® AND THE EBRI RETIREMENT READINESS RATING:™ EBRI has been providing assessments of national retirement income adequacy using its proprietary Retirement Security Projection Model® (RSPM) since 2003. The 2010 EBRI Retirement Readiness Rating™ (RRR), based on the model, provides a benchmark for every American and their prospects for having sufficient resources to cover basic expenses and uninsured health expenses. This latest update includes consideration of the effects of automatic enrollment, auto escalation of contributions, and qualified default investments in terms of higher rates of participation, deferrals, and investment diversification.
NEW RESULTS SINCE THE POLICY FORUM: The 2010 EBRI RRR™ finds that more than two-fifths (41 percent) of Americans in the lowest preretirement income level will have insufficient resources to cover basic expenses and uninsured health costs after 10 years in retirement. Almost a third (29 percent) of those in the next-to-highest income level will run short of money to cover basic expenses and uninsured health costs after 20 years in retirement, as will more than 1 in 10 (13 percent) of those in the highest-income level. By age group, almost one-half of the Early Baby Boomer cohort (those now ages 56–62) are at risk of running short of money to cover basic expenditures in retirement.