Greetings—

Due to the many life transitions that young people (ages 18 to 24) face, they are more likely to be uninsured than any other group, despite many of them being eligible for Medicaid or premium tax credits on the Marketplace.

A new report from Urban Institute researchers examines the demographic, eligibility, and geographic characteristics of uninsured young adults to support outreach and enrollment.

The researchers also project insurance coverage of young adults in 2025, after Medicaid unwinding is complete but before the expiration of the enhanced PTCs. They project:

There will be 3.6 million uninsured young adults in 2025, an uninsured rate of 11.3 percent.
The uninsured rate for young adults will be highest in Texas (20.9 percent), Alaska (17.6 percent), and Florida (17.0 percent) and lowest in the District of Columbia (4.3 percent), New York (4.6 percent) and Iowa (5.4 percent).
Young adults will be more likely to be uninsured than any other age group in 2025: 11.3 percent will be uninsured, compared to 4.2 percent of children and 9.6 percent of adults ages 25 to 64.
Young adults’ uninsurance will vary by state and subgroup. For instance, uninsurance is projected to be higher for young adults who live in states that did not expand Medicaid eligibility under the ACA, are 20 to 24, are men, are Hispanic, are not students, and have low incomes compared with their counterparts in other subgroups.
About half of uninsured young adults are projected to qualify for publicly supported health insurance coverage in 2025. About 1.1 million uninsured young adults will be eligible for Medicaid while 0.6 million will be eligible for Marketplace premium tax credits.

Read the report, which includes recommendations for improving outreach to young people. If you have questions for the research team, please reply to this email.

Thanks,