Kansas Health Institute | Information For Policy Makers. Health for Kansans.

TOPEKA — All the major health insurance companies in Kansas are among the more than 60 nationally that have agreed to move ahead of the September federal health reform deadline for allowing young adults to stay on their parents' policies up to age 26.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas, the state's largest health insurer, is on the list. So are Blue Cross of Kansas City, Coventry, Aetna, Humana and United Health Care, according to officials at the Kansas Insurance Department.

"That's pretty much most of the market," said Linda Sheppard, director of the department's accident and health division.

The most significant provisions of the massive reform bills signed into law two months ago by President Obama don't begin until 2014. But the administration has been trumpeting popular initiatives that are already or soon taking effect as a way of building public support for the programs.

The law gave insurance companies until September to begin allowing parents to keep adult children up to age 26 on their policies. Until then, the companies could have continued the common practice of excluding dependents once they reached age 22 or had graduated from college.

But most of the nation's major insurers, including those in Kansas, have agreed to go ahead and let adult children hitting the old limits before September to stay on, instead of kicking them off and then re-enrolling when that portion of the law technically becomes effective.

Officials don't know yet how many young people will gain in Kansas as a result of the early embrace of the law.

"We don't have any idea how many young folks might be coming on," Sheppard said. "We don't really have a good feel for how all that is going to play out. It will be a big surprise for us as well."

A recent national study has concluded that health reform will ultimately lead to coverage of the majority of the nation's young adults, a group that currently accounts for about a third of Americans who lack health insurance.

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius held a press conference today describing progress on the quickest benefits Americans are expected to see, including the scheduled mailing next month of the first round of $250 rebate checks to Medicare beneficiaries who have hit the prescription drug "donut hole."

Officials said about 4 million seniors across the nation will have received a rebate check by the end of the year.

"We are acting quickly to fill the gaps," Sebelius said. "Americans, who have waited decades for health reform, are reaping the benefits."

She said her agency was developing regulations quickly as possible for major components of the new reform laws, including one that gives HHS first-ever authority to review insurance rates to assure that 80 to 85 percent of premium costs are devoted to medical care.

She said the agency would release a "patients' bill of rights," next month.

"We are keeping close watch to be sure they (insurers) are treating their customers fairly."