Here is what we know:

• NO HEALTH INSURANCE - Two out of five college graduates and one-half of high school graduates who do not go on to college will experience a time without health insurance in the first year after graduation. (Commonwealth Fund 2003)



• DROPPED FROM HEALTH INSURANCE - Young adults are often dropped from their parents policies or public insurance programs at age 19, or when they graduate from college and struggle to find jobs with health benefits. The study also found that they are far more likely to be uninsured than older adults: four of 10 young adults between the ages of 19 and 29 can expect to be uninsured at sometime during the year-twice the rate of adults ages 30 to 64. (Commonwealth Fund 2003)



• BARRIERS TO GET AND KEEP HEALTH INSURANCE - “Americans with disabilities face a number of distinct barriers in obtaining, maintaining, and using health insurance and in accessing and using health care services. At the same time, Americans with disabilities also confront the barriers, problems, and frustrations with which most Americans routinely struggle in the insurance and health care systems." (National Council on Disability released its 2001 annual National Disability Policy: A Progress Report, on July 26, 2002.)