Companies urged to follow new health law in Ohio

June 10, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

COLUMBUS

Advocates for the uninsured are urging some of Ohio’s biggest employers to follow a new state law that allows young adults to stay on their parents’ health insurance until they turn 28, even though the companies are exempt.

The law, which takes effect July 1, makes Ohio one of the few states to exceed the extension to age 26 mandated by President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul. Young adults have one of the highest uninsured rates, often because they can’t find jobs or because employers don’t offer health coverage for entry-level positions.

Ohio’s new benefit, while broad, won’t help children whose parents work at private, self-insured companies that pay their workers’ medical claims directly rather than buy insurance. These firms, including Procter & Gamble Co. and Honda Motor Co., fall outside state regulation.

About 6.6 million Ohioans get health insurance through employer-based coverage, and about half of those are with employers that self-insure.

It’s disappointing that some of Ohio’s largest employers will not voluntarily extend coverage for young adults to age 28, said Cathy Levine, executive director of the Universal Health Care Action Network of Ohio.

“We all benefit from having more young adults, who tend to be low-cost, in the insurance pool,” she said.

Self-insured companies generally have multistate operations, and to offer health benefits in Ohio that aren’t available to employees and their children in other states could be very confusing and administratively difficult, said Carrie Haughawout, who tracks health care policy at the Ohio Chamber of Commerce.