Here’s how we determined that over 80,000 young people raised by LGBT parents have likely been able to access health insurance through the expansion of care under the Affordable Care Act.
2 million children being raised by LGBT parents (Movement Advancement Project, Family Equality Council and Center for American Progress, “All Children Matter: How Legal and Social Inequalities Hurt LGBT Parents (Full Report),” October 2011).
74.2 million children under 18 living in America (Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics, POP 1 CHILD POPULATION: NUMBER OF CHILDREN (IN MILLIONS) AGES 0–17 IN THE UNITED STATES BY AGE, 1950–2010 AND PROJECTED 2030–2050, available at http://www.childstats.gov/americaschildren/tables/pop1.asp).
Yeilds a percentage rate of: 2.7% of children being raised by LGBT parents
3.1 million more young people between the ages of 19 and 26 have been covered by their parents’ health insurance because of the Affordable Care Act (Health and Human Services, New health care law helps more than 3 million young adults get and keep health coverage, June 19, 2012, available at http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2012pres/06/20120619b.html).
2.7% of 3.1 million =
83,700 young adults raised by LGBT parents
Note that the census data and the number of children being raised by LGBT parents are both number of children up to age 18. The young people newly covered under their parents’ health insurance are 19-26 years old. Parentage rates have dropped in recent years, so while it’s likely that the percentage of 19-26 year olds raised by LGBT parents is higher than 2.7%, we wanted to err on the conservative side.