Study: Young Adult Emergency Room Use Dropped Due To Obamacare Provision

A new study published in Health Affairs finds that the Affordable Care Act kept young adults on their parents' insurance plans and out of emergency rooms. Emergency department visits for 19 to 25 year-olds decreased by 2.7 visits per 1,000 people compared to an older cohorts over the same period.

The Obamacare provision allowing young adults to remain on their parents' insurance up until age 26 was one of the earliest to go into effect, kicking in the same year the health law was passed, 2010. Previous studies have also indicated that emergency room use by this group was on the decline after the provision, estimated to cover between 2 and 3.5 million young Americans, went into effect.

“The largest relative decreases were found in women (3 percent) and blacks (3.4 percent)," wrote the Stanford University researchers. "This relative decrease in ED uses implies the total reduction of more than 60,000 visits from young adults ages 19-25 across the three states in 2011.”

Read more at Health Affairs

Read more at Forbes