With the recent legislative changes, many individuals are unsure how their health insurance quotes will be affected. One of the main issues of concern for many people is how these changes will affect coverage for their adult children.

Historically, when a child reaches 18 years of age, they are no longer able to be covered through their parent's health insurance policy. The result was that many adult children from the ages of 18 to 25 were uninsured. While the exception to this rule was if the child was enrolled full-time in a college or university, this exception was not universally applied by all health insurance companies.

The ability of health insurance companies to set their own rules often meant that the rules were different for each adult child. The result was that two adult children attending the same school might not have the same health coverage: one adult child might be covered under their parent's policy until they graduated from college at age 22, but the other might be excluded from coverage and need to pay for an individual policy. Often, health insurance quotes included information about this limitation, but rarely did policy purchasers seriously consider their applicability because of their uncertainty about the general rules. Without knowing whether they could find better or longer coverage for their adult children, individuals seeking health insurance quotes did not question any age limitations on the quoted policy.

The new health care laws, though, have extended all health care coverage for adult children through the age of 26. This age is considered the average age that adult children complete graduate degree education programs. This rule is now universal, meaning that all health insurance quotes for families will automatically cover adult children up to age 26. Of course, should the child obtain insurance elsewhere, coverage through his or her parents would automatically cease.

The intent of this new law was to reduce the significant percentage of adult children that are without health insurance. Adult children not enrolled in school full-time and that are otherwise not provided with health care by their employer, which is often the case when an individual works part-time, will not be without health coverage. Important, too, is that health insurance quotes should not rise based on this new law. Because there is no way to predict whether an adult child will rely on his or her parent's health insurance in their first years of adulthood, there is no real basis for insurance companies to increase policy costs.

Adult children, particularly those intending to pursue graduate degrees, benefit from the recent health care legislation. This law came into effect in September of 2010, so it is already applicable.