The New York Times (5/11, A11, Pear) reports, "The White House issued rules on Monday allowing young adults to remain covered by their parents' health insurance policies up to age 26."  But, "the rules allow an exception for employer-sponsored health plans that were in existence on March 23, when President Obama signed the healthcare bill.  In general, such health plans can exclude adult children of workers until 2014 if the children have access to insurance through another employer-sponsored health plan."  For instance, "that might occur...if a 24-year-old child is working for a business that offers health benefits to employees."  Notably, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has "estimated that 1.2 million people would gain coverage because of the new requirement."

        The Washington Post (5/11, Hilzenrath) reports, "Some families could pay a price if they seize the chance offered by the new healthcare law to keep children up to age 26 on their insurance policies, regulations drafted by the Obama administration show."  That is because "until 2014, when health plans will be prohibited from charging higher premiums based on preexisting conditions, insurers in the individual market can take into account the young adult's medical condition when setting the family's premium."  And, "under certain circumstances, families could be required to pay extra to carry young adults on their policies."

        The AP (5/11, Alonso-Zaldivar) explains, "Letting young adults stay on their parents' health insurance until they turn 26 will nudge premiums nearly 1 percent higher for employer plans, the government said in an estimate released Monday."  HHS "released estimates of the costs and benefits of the requirement as part of a regulation directing employers and insurers how to carry it out.  The new benefit will cost $3,380 for each dependent, raising premiums by 0.7 percent in 2011 for employer plans, according to the department's mid-range estimate."

        Bloomberg News (5/11, Armstrong) reports that "workers who pay to add children to their insurance can deduct the cost from their taxes if the money used to pay the premium isn't already set aside as pretax cash."  And, although "the rules letting children stay on their parents' coverage don't go into effect until Sept. 23, 65 insurers have agreed not to drop young adults graduating from college this spring.  WellPoint, Inc., the largest insurer by enrollment, Cigna Corp., UnitedHealth Group, Inc. and Humana, Inc. are among those that are part of the agreement."  Commenting on that fact, Sebelius said, "Over the last few weeks, we've reached out to insurance companies and asked them to make this change immediately.  And to their credit, we've gotten a terrific response."  The Wall Street Journal (5/11, Adamy) and the San Francisco Chronicle (5/10, A1, Colliver) also covered the story.

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