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Children and young adults can stay on their parents’ health insurance until they are 26. Now, L.A. Democratic Assemblyman Miguel Santiago wants that coverage to go the other way, too.
Santiago’s Assembly Bill 570 would let adult children extend coverage to their older parents.
"There's plenty of families up and down the state of California who help their parents financially ... and now can't give them a very basic right to health care through their own coverage plan,” he said. “This is critical. It's the humane thing to do."
Santiago's bill would also cover adult children with undocumented dependent parents who can't get their own subsidized coverage through Covered California.
State Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara is sponsoring AB 570, and says extending health coverage to dependent parents would raise the cost of premiums by less than 1%.
AB 570 had its first hearing before the Assembly Health Committee on Tuesday afternoon.
