Young adults who recently gained the opportunity to obtain health insurance coverage under their parent’s policy may have cause for concern.

A repeal of the Affordable Care Act, President Obama’s signature legislation to reform U.S. health care, passed through the House of Representatives on Jan. 19 and will now move on to the Senate.

Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act, as the Republican sponsored bill called it, passed with a vote of 245-189. All House Republicans voted for repeal along with three democrats—Dan Boren (D-Okla.) Mike McIntyre (D-N.C.) and Mike Ross, (D-Ark.)

An important piece of the Affordable Care Act for young adults gave them the ability to stay covered under their parents’ policy until age 26. However, students living in Illinois will not lose the privilege if the federal law is repealed.

“In Illinois we actually passed a state law that allows young people to stay on their parents’ insurance until they’re 26,” said Brian Imus, director of Illinois Public Interest Research Groups. “If the federal law is repealed, we’ve still got state

law protections.”

Although Illinois used to be considered the “Wild West” of regulating big health insurance companies, according to Imus, the state is slowly starting to move toward putting more consumer protections into place—something federal health care reform legislation is helping them to do.

“If that federal law goes away, we’ll lose out on a lot of resources that help the department of insurance make sure insurance companies are not unfairly charging consumers,” Imus said.

Larry McNeely, federal health care advocate for Illinois PIRG, said the rising premiums and low accessibility stem from an overall lack of competition in

insurance markets.

“To fix that the [federal] law allows states to create new state-level health insurance exchanges,” McNeely said.

This process will allow individuals to come together as a group to shop state by state and negotiate for better deals.

Another issue students might face if a repeal moves forward is a decrease in job availability.

“Young adults are going to be leaving college [and] entering the job market,” McNeely said. “The rise in cost of health care is not only affecting young people, it’s affecting employers.”

He also said the effect on employers turns back on young adults because businesses are going to spend more on health care costs and less on hiring

new staff.

“There are a number of states that have taken some steps to make limited improvement for folks, but if I were a student I would not be feeling comfortable if this thing moves forward,” McNeely said.

One major impact of an overall repeal for students would be the reinstatement of coverage denial based on pre-existing conditions, according to McNeely.

“Illinois doesn’t have a ban on denial of coverage [because of] pre-existing conditions. So that’s one area where if the federal law is repealed, insurance

companies would continue to be able to do this,” McNeely said.

Congressman John Shimkus (R-Ill.) who voted for the repeal, said a ban on pre-existing condition denial and a higher age limit for parental policy coverage are, in his opinion, some of the bill’s

positive components.

“Those are two things we could easily move on our own separately, and they’re a part of our alternatives,” Shimkus said.

He represents the 19th district and was formerly the highest-ranking Republican on the health sub-committee. He said he believes GOP representatives have done the job constituents elected them to do.

“It’s [fulfilling] campaign promises to the people who sent us to Washington, and that was to address this job-destroying bill,” Shimkus said.

According to him, of the 87 new Republican members of the House, it is likely they all ran on repeal. He also thinks incumbents, like himself, used a platform of repeal or repeal and replace.

Congressman Danny Davis (D-Ill.) said he thinks House Republicans have done their job when it comes to repeal.

“Even though you might know something is likely not to pass in the other body, you have to get it passed in your body for it to have any chance of ever becoming law anyway,” Davis said. “You

have to go ahead and do what you are capable of doing.”

However, both representatives said it is unlikely a repeal bill will pass through the Senate.

“I don’t expect you to see anything move,” Shimkus said. “I do think you’ll have debates on provisions of the bill that folks will want to get fixed.”

He said he thinks the passed House resolution will at least lead to conversation on overall reform of the federal health care bill. Davis agreed a dead end in the Senate does not mean the end of discussion on health care reform.

“Nothing is ever the end,” Davis said. “Things will always go on and there will always be efforts to undo and to redo. That’s the process of democracy.”