Health Care Access and Utilization Among Young Adults Aged 19.pdfVIP

Released 5/2012 Health Care Access and Utilization Among Young Adults Aged 19–25: Early Release of Estimates From the National Health Interview Survey, January–September 2011 by Whitney K. Kirzinger, M.P.H.; Robin A. Cohen, Ph.D.; and Renee M. Gindi, Ph.D., Division of Health Interview Statistics, National Center for Health Statistics Highlights Introduction • From January through September Previous studies have examined patterns of health care utilization among young 2011, 77.9% of women aged 19– adults (1,2). Low wages or temporary jobs typically available to young adults upon 25 had a usual place for health graduation from high school or college often come with limited or no health benefits care compared with 62.5% of men (3). Disruption of health insurance coverage can introduce barriers to health care and in the same age group. leave young adults vulnerable to high out-of-pocket expenses in the event of a serious illness or injury (4). In March 2010, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) • Among adults aged 19–25, those legislation was passed. One of ACA ’s early provisions was the extension of with public health coverage were dependent private health insurance coverage for young adults up to age 26. This more likely to have had an report provides preliminary estimates of access to and utilization of health care emergency room visit in the past among young adults aged 19–25, using National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) 12 months than those wit