New data indicate more young people have health insurance now than they did last year.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that Americans ages 19 to 25 without insurance fell to 9.1 million in the first quarter of 2011 from 10 million in 2010, or to 30.4 percent from 33.9 percent.
Almost 1 million young adults nationwide have signed up for health insurance in the past year, according to the CDC.
Another poll by Gallup found that 24.2 percent of 18- to 25-year-olds were uninsured in the second quarter of this year. That's down from 28 percent in the third quarter of 2010.
The U.S. Census Bureau reported similar drops in uninsured young adults. Most people who gained coverage did it through private policies, not government programs, according to the Census Bureau.
Proponents of the Affordable Care Act, Obama's health plan, are using these numbers as evidence that the new law is having a positive impact.
In September, the law began allowing young adults up to the age of 26 to remain as dependents on their parents' health plans. They are not eligible if they have an offer of employer-based coverage.
Previously, youths were off their parents' policies at age 18, or 21 or when they left college.
Michael Gold, an insurance agent with Insurance for College Students, doesn't think this recent trend is because of the new law.
"People are buying insurance to buy insurance," he said.
Gold sells insurance to college students at Florida universities, including UF. He has seen more UF students buying insurance, but that's been a trend over the last 20 years, he said.
Students are not required to have health insurance at UF.
"The university and Student Health Care Center policy is that students should have health insurance, although [it is] not currently required unless they are an international student," said Catherine Seemann, marketing specialist at the SHCC.
Because the university does not require health insurance or ask about it during admissions, the SHCC does not have the exact number of privately insured students, which would include students on their parents' plans. However, in 2008 the U.S. Government Accountability Office released numbers indicating that at major universities, 80 percent of students were insured and 20 percent were uninsured, Seemann said.
UF offers a university-sponsored health care plan to undergraduate students.
As of Sept. 22, about 1,900 students were on Plan 2, which is considered the major medical plan, and 208 students were on Plan 3, which is considered the supplemental plan. Both of these numbers are for the policy year that began Aug.14, Seemann said.
Although Seeman did not specify the number of students on university-sponsored plans last fall, she said they were similar to this year's numbers.
Under the new health care law, most Americans will need some kind of health insurance by 2014.
Gold said he believes there will be more people buying insurance between now and then.
He said the increase is just the nature of health insurance today.
