by: Emily Beaver

Under 26 with no health insurance? Signing up for Mom or Dad's health insurance plan later this year might be the cure.

On September 23, part of health care reform that allows young adults to get insurance coverage through their parents' plans until age 26 will become law. Before Congress passed health care reform earlier this year, every state had different rules about how long young people could be covered under their parents' plans. Insurance plans could drop young adults when they turned 19 or graduated from college. Some states allowed young people to stay on their parents plans into their twenties, but required them to live with their parents, be unmarried, or be a college student.

The good news for young people is that the new law does away with these rules, said Ari Matusiak, co-founder the Young Invincibles, an organization that promotes opportunities for people ages 18 to 34. Starting September 24, young adults living in any state won't have to live with their parents, be students, or even be unmarried to be insured through a parent's health care plan, he said.

Matusiak and Young Invincibles co-founder Aaron Smith teamed up with AARP, a group for people over age 50, to answer questions about the new law at a virtual town hall meeting in Sacramento, California on Thursday. They also introduced GettingCovered.org, a new website that helps young adults find out if they can get insured through a parent's plan. The site, created by the Young Invincibles, lets young adults and their parents take a short quiz to find their health care options - they can even get personal "health care prescriptions" based on their quiz results e-mailed to them. Employers can also find information about adding adult children to insurance plans.

By: Emily Beaver

Members of Congress have been arguing about health care reform for months, but now the pressure is really on.

What's happening with reform

The Senate passed its health care reform bill on Christmas Eve and the House of Representatives passed its own bill in October. Now, leaders from the House and the Senate are scrambling to combine the two different bills into one health care reform bill -- which both the House and Senate will have to vote on again.

So what's the rush? Congress can pass health care reform at any time, but Democrats are concerned about an election happening in Massachusetts today. Voters will elect a new senator to replace the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, a Democrat who died in August 2009. If a Republican wins the election, Democrats will no longer have 60 votes in the Senate -- which Senate Democrats need to pass the bill. (And members of Congress need to address other issues, like jobs and the economy.)