Young adults had the highest uninsured rates before the Affordable Care Act and have seen the sharpest drop in uninsured rates since 2010. Yet millions of young adults remain uninsured.
In response, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently announced several new strategies, new tools, and new partnerships to reach young adults during Open Enrollment and help them find affordable coverage through HealthCare.gov. New tactics are intended to both benefit young Americans and strengthen the Marketplace risk pool.
“More than 9 in 10 Marketplace-eligible young adults without health insurance have incomes that could qualify them for tax credits to make plans affordable, but that fact hasn’t fully penetrated the millennial community, and we want to change that,” said Kevin Counihan, HealthCare.gov CEO.
This year, online, millennial-friendly platforms will be used to promote Open Enrollment. For example, Twitch, a social video platform and community for gamers will be used – something that has never been done before. Twitch currently attracts close to 10 million daily active users with a core demographic of 18-34 year-olds, who have above average uninsured rates.
CMS will also be joining with partners to communicate with young people on the digital platforms they prefer – including Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr – and engaging in a conversation under a unified #HealthyAdulting message about issues young people care about, whether that’s mental health, women’s wellness, reproductive health, or diabetes prevention.
As previously announced, the Internal Revenue Service will conduct new outreach this year to uninsured people who paid the individual responsibility penalty or claimed an exemption, letting them know that tax credits are available for Marketplace coverage and providing information about their health coverage options. Young adults are overrepresented among those who paid the fee: about 45 percent of taxpayers paying a penalty or claiming an exemption were under age 35, compared to about 30 percent of all taxpayers in 2014.
