Young Invincibles organization publishes a health care 'Graduation Toolkit' to help students navigate recent insurance changes
Health Care Graduation Toolkit
Available online at www.younginvincibles.org/toolkit. Or text "toolkit" to 69866.
By Nicole Arulanantham
April 1, 2011 6:22 a.m.
Nina Pavlovskaya spent her last year as an undergrad worrying about her health care options for after graduation.
But in September, a federal provision allowing young adults to stay on parents’ health insurance plans until age 26 was passed. The bill was a relief for Pavlovskaya, 24, who takes classes through UCLA Extension.
To help students like Pavlovskaya who may be uncertain of their health care options, youth advocacy organization Young Invincibles released a health care-specific “Graduation Toolkit” last week to help graduating seniors make the most of the options available to them.
The kit is now available online and includes specifics on how to get back on a family coverage plan, tips for purchasing other insurance plans and details of the reform act. It also provides advice for students with pre-existing conditions who may not qualify for individual insurance plans currently, but for whom coverage will be available starting in 2014.
“Graduation Toolkit” can also be sent in PDF form to mobile devices, said Jen Mishory, director of Young Invincibles and former Daily Bruin writer. Graduating seniors can go to
www.younginvincibles.org/toolkit to download information on a variety of topics.
“We advocated for health care reform, and now that it has passed we want to inform young people on how to receive benefits,” said Tobin Van Ostern, a network associate for the Campus Progress organization, which works in conjunction with Young Invincibles.
Pavlovskaya plans to go to graduate school in a year. She will turn 25 in a month and can only remain on her parents’ insurance for another year.
“(My parents) have really good insurance. The job I’m working at now and the one I’ll be moving on to are both with start-up companies, so they don’t offer benefits yet,” she said.
But by the time she is 26, she said, her company will be able to offer health coverage. She will take those benefits when the time comes as she will no longer be eligible to remain on her family plan.
UCLA requires all students to have insurance, and currently 40 percent of graduate and undergraduate students are on family coverage plans, said John Bollard, chief of administrative services at the Ashe Center.
The passage of the reform bill has slightly reduced the number of students who are buying student health insurance from UCLA, Bollard said.
The health care provision will be beneficial for graduating students, who will now be able to return to their parents’ plans, he said.
Spencer Gauthier, a fourth-year anthropology student, said he hasn’t heard much about how to secure insurance for himself after graduation, although he also has not gone looking for the information. Set to graduate in June, he plans on applying to law school or business school and may work at an internship or other job in the meantime.
“I’m planning on relying on the family plan until I can’t anymore,” Gauthier said. “My dad has pretty good health care ““ he’s a professor.”
Before the health care bill’s passage, the state of California did not provide coverage for young adults on family plans past age 19, Mishory said. However, insurance carriers could determine whether to allow dependents to remain covered as long as they were students, Mishory said.
Back then, Pavlovskaya had seen friends go through a hard time obtaining health coverage.
“When I was a senior last year, I was really worried about what was going to happen,” she said. “It was nice to know I wouldn’t have to worry about it for another year or two.”
