Final answer:
Under the Affordable Care Act, pre-existing condition exclusions cannot be applied to children or any other age group. The law also allows young adults to stay on their parents' insurance until age twenty-six, significantly reducing the rate of uninsured Americans.
Step-by-step explanation:
According to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, insurers are prohibited from imposing pre-existing condition exclusions for all policyholders, including children. This means that health insurers cannot deny coverage to children based on health issues they had before the start of their new insurance coverage. The ACA has been instrumental in reducing the rate of uninsured Americans, by not only addressing pre-existing condition exclusions but also expanding Medicaid eligibility, transforming it to include those who are at or below 133 percent of the federal poverty level.
Furthermore, the ACA allows children to remain on their parents' health insurance policy until the age of twenty-six. The law's main goals were to extend coverage to millions of uninsured, regulate the health insurance market, and improve the overall healthcare system in the United States. In consequence, many Americans have gained coverage, and the individual mandate required everyone to obtain health insurance or pay a penalty, fostering a more inclusive health insurance system.