This brief, released in February 2015, was written by researchers from the University of California San Francisco Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies.
The “Age 26” of Affordable Care Act (ACA) allowed many young adults ages 19 to 26 to retain insurance coverage as a dependent through their parents’ employer-based plans. This expanded dependent coverage helped reduce the uninsured rate for California young adults from 28.9% in 2009 to 26.0% in 2012. However, this has also tested the limits of medical privacy protection.
This new brief reports on some of the legal gaps that led to new legislation and privacy rights for patients in California; in addition to findings from an exploratory study of health plans and insurers, and their readiness to fulfill the requirements of SB 138, the Confidential Health Information Act.
The 2014 brief can be downloaded here:
