In the last few years, people have experienced a hike in health insurance rates across the board. Pre-existing conditions can no longer be a reason to reject a person's application, but they do have to deal with a waiting period. Additionally, health insurance rates for those with pre-existing conditions are also higher than those without. Also, more and more companies are no longer offering their employees health insurance as a benefit of working for them. The rates for most policies have gone up, including group policies, so companies have seen this as too expense a risk to take on. However, there is a silver lining in all of the health insurance changes from the last decade. Young adults are able to obtain insurance coverage at a much more affordable rate while still retaining the wide coverage needed to stay healthy. While many young adults used to worry about turning 19 or 21 and then having to look for insurance through the college or elsewhere, that is no longer the case.

Health insurance coverage continues to change every year even in the face of the new Affordable Care Act that was signed into law in 2010. One of the changes that have taken place has been the age at which children can no longer be on a policy. The old rules implied that by the age of 21, most adult children had to get off of their parent's insurance plans and had to look for new plans. However, that is not the case nowadays with most insurance companies allowing adult children to stay on their parent's policy up to the age of 25. This gives them enough time to look for an employer that will offer health insurance as an employee benefit, or find insurance on their own. This is great news for those who have struggled after college to find employment in a tumultuous economy such as the one we're experiencing today.

What also helps young adults is their ability to navigate the wide and all-encompassing world of the Internet. Many traditional insurance companies and plenty of brand new ones all have websites that help people get insurance coverage from them. No one has to go door to door in order to find a policy they want or make calls all day to find the right coverage. All it takes is a computer and an Internet connection and a health insurance policy is waiting on the other end. Young adults grew up with the Internet and thus can sift through dozens of insurance companies to find coverage they need at a price they can afford. Additionally, insurance policies for young adults are fairly affordable online.