Isbah-Care: Getting Health Coverage as a Young Adult

Isbah Raja, a 23-year-old student at the University of Texas, suffered from lupus, an autoimmune disease that attacks her organs, causing pains in her joints and clumps of hair to fall out. Like too many other young adults prior to passage of the health care law, she had to worry about getting and staying well while also trying to get health insurance.

She’s now covered by her father’s health plan and will be until she’s 26, because of the health care reform law. More than 3 million young adults now have health coverage because the Affordable Care Act requires insurers to allow young adults up to 26 to be covered by their parents’ health plans.

   

The Affordable Care Act “directly had an impact on my life,” Isbah says. “I don’t have to worry about not being able to see a specialist, not being able to get the medications I need.”

And, Isbah notes, that when she ages off the plan and has to secure health insurance on her own, the health care law will bar insurers from denying her coverage because of her pre-existing condition.

“That’s a comforting feeling,” Isbah says. “There’s no more anxiety anymore.”

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