Almost every week, there’s a story about health care in the news. Most students ignore them. However, these are the programs that directly affect young adults.

According to the most recent Minnesota Health Access Survey, 16.9 percent of young adults in Minnesota were uninsured in 2011. Previous Minnesota health plans only covered young adults until their early twenties and set more limitations on who could obtain affordable health insurance.

The Affordable Care Act was instituted to extend coverage to more people. Regardless of one’s political views, how these policies have changed are vitally important for students to know.

As of 2014, young adults can stay on their parent’s health plan until they turn 26 years old, even if they are married or not financially dependent on their parents.

Kent Goodroad, 2002 HHS graduate, had to learn about health coverage when he was 23. At the time, health insurance only extended the parent’s plan until the age of 22.

“There are a lot of people willing to help you figure out a plan that works for you. Talk to medical professionals you trust or go online to figure it out on your own. Not having health insurance is not an option,” Goodroad said.

Most graduates stay on their parent’s plan until they receive their own plan through a job or through one of the health care marketplaces. This includes the Health Insurance Exchange through the state of Minnesota’s organization at MNsure.org and the federal Health Insurance Marketplace at healthcare.gov.

Although these sites have both had many technical difficulties, both are improving.

Ms. Marit Lee-Dohse, Health, teaches how the federal and state health insurance plans should be working on preventing illnesses before they can happen.

“75 percent of health care costs go to treating preventable chronic diseases. The focus really needs to be on prevention instead of just the symptoms. We pay more for health care and we are sicker as a nation,” Lee-Dohse said.

Now every health plan covers preventive care and screenings. This means that every flu shot and annual check up is free. Also, new health plans are no longer allowed to deny a customer because of a preexisting condition. For example, a person with diabetes cannot be turned away by an insurance company based on their past medical problems.

Furthermore, the companies can’t drop you if you get sick.

However, this plan can’t work unless both healthy and sick people sign up. If the insurance companies are going to be able to afford to pay for all these people that are sick, they need healthy people to be paying in.

“If the pool of people with health insurance increases, the cost of insurance goes down. Companies try to attract a certain group of young invincibles who are healthy and don’t have lots of health concerns. So, if the young person does have an accident, they don’t have to pay lots of money,” said John Schadl, Communications for MnSure.

People who don’t sign up for health care have to pay a fee that increases each year they decline to become insured. Without insurance, they may not be able to afford to go to the doctor if something bad does happen.

“Kids should look around to their family situations and ask their parents. Many of them have heard their parents talk about health care. Some of them have lived it. If you’re totally clueless about insurance, just ask your parents about how the cost of health insurance affects your family. I think kids will be amazed,” Lee-Dohse said.