Our reporting is free for everyone, but it’s not free to make.
LAist only exists with reader support. If you're in a position to give, your donation powers our reporters and keeps us independent.
LA Assemblyman Wants To Let Adult Children Cover Their Parents’ Health Care
A proposed bill in the Assembly would allow adult children to include their parents on their health insurance plan.
(Chava Sanchez
/
LAist)
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.
