Earlier today, the Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in a 5-4 vote.  The Court ruled that the individual mandate and the Medicaid expansion to all low-income Americans are both constitutional. However, states can choose whether or not to participate in the expansion.

So how does this ruling affect you?  Importantly, over 3 million previously uninsured young adults on their parent’s plans get to stay there.  By 2014, the ACA will help a whole lot more young people – millions more could get subsidies to help purchase insurance, or join Medicaid.  However, if a state chooses not to expand Medicaid, certain low-income young adults might not be able to qualify for the program. Here’s an in-depth breakdown of how the ACA can help you right now, and in the future:

Right Now:

• As mentioned above, young adults can now stay on their parent’s health insurance until they are 26.

• Health insurance plans must now cover preventive services at no charge.  Not only does this include basic services like doctor’s checkups, but also women’s health services like mammograms and pap smears.  Starting August 1st, contraception will be covered as well. 

• Health insurance plans have to spend more of your premiums on you.  In fact, if health insurance companies spend less than 80% of premiums on medical care, they have to send a rebate to all of their consumers.

• Insurance companies used to be able to drop you at any time if your medical bills got too large.  But thanks to the ACA, that practice is banned. So if you’re in the hospital for an extended period of time, you don’t have to worry about losing your insurance.

• People under age 19 with pre-existing conditions can no longer be denied health insurance.  It used to be that if you had a serious condition such as heart disease, cancer, or diabetes, insurers could refuse to insure you.  In 2014, this practice is prohibited for all Americans.

In 2014:

• One of the biggest pieces of the ACA is the development of Insurance Exchanges.  These websites will be like Travelocity, allowing you to look up what health plans are available, how much they cost, and what they offer, without any fine print.  Check out Massachusetts’ exchange for an idea of what the new websites will look like.

• The ACA will also provide tax credits for anyone making less than $44,000 to help them afford health insurance.  These tax credits will be available as soon as you get approved, so you don’t have to worry about waiting until tax day to get money for health insurance. This provision alone will help over 9 million young adults afford health insurance.

• Up to 8 million young adults will qualify for expanded Medicaid expansions.  In 2014, all people making less than $15,000 (or more if you have a family) will be eligible for Medicaid.  This is a huge difference since most states now restrict Medicaid only to people with children, so most single young adults are not eligible.  However, the Supreme Court’s decision will allow some states to avoid the expansion so we still have more work to do to ensure that all low-income young people have this option.

• The most contentious piece of the bill, the individual mandate, was upheld.  The individual mandate is essentially a small tax on people who can afford health insurance, but choose not to purchase it.  This means that starting in 2014, all Americans will have the responsibility of purchasing health coverage.  However, people who can’t afford insurance will be exempt from this requirement.

Young Invincibles is thrilled that the Affordable Care Act was upheld and that affordable health insurance will be available to over 17 million young adults.  However, there is still more work to be done on Medicaid and educating young adults on all of their new options.  Stay tuned to Young Invincibles for more updates!