--- title: How Republicans Learned to Like One Part of Obamacare description: Jeb Bush is the latest Republican to back keeping a part of the Affordable Care Act that lets you stay on you parent's insurance to age 26. canonical: https://time.com/3746567/obamacare-under-26-republicans/ author: Kate Pickert article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-03-17T10:00:17.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:47:21.655Z article:section: Politics og:title: How Republicans Learned to Like One Part of Obamacare og:description: Jeb Bush is the latest to back a provision aimed at twentysomethings. og:url: https://time.com/3746567/obamacare-under-26-republicans/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2553c82b4b8fbe97/6987839af887dc239ce8a97f/jeb-bush-nh.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush speaks to the media after visiting Integra Biosciences during a campaign stop in Hudson, New Hampshire og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Republicans Learned to Like One Part of Obamacare twitter:description: Jeb Bush is the latest to back a provision aimed at twentysomethings. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2553c82b4b8fbe97/6987839af887dc239ce8a97f/jeb-bush-nh.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How Republicans Learned to Like One Part of Obamacare > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Kate Pickert](https://time.com/author/kate-pickert/) ## Kate Pickert Mar 17, 2015 10:00 AM UTC  Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush speaks to the media after visiting Integra Biosciences during a campaign stop in Hudson, New Hampshire March 13, 2015. Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush speaks to the media after visiting Integra Biosciences during a campaign stop in Hudson, New Hampshire March 13, 2015. Shannon Stapleton—Reuters by [Kate Pickert](https://time.com/author/kate-pickert/) ## Kate Pickert Mar 17, 2015 10:00 AM UTC Jeb Bush called the Affordable Care Act “flawed to the core” during a visit to New Hampshire this weekend, but there was one part of the law he said he might keep. During a house party in Dover, the former Florida governor said that while he’d like to repeal the entire law, he could support keeping a provision that allows parents to keep their children on their health insurance policies until age 26. “I don’t have an argument against that,” he said, adding that Republicans “could repeal Obamacare and take elements of it that are appropriate that have broad bipartisan support as part of a new plan.” If they do, the under-26 provision would be likely to be near the top of the list. Republican alternatives to Obamacare drawn up by Sens. [Orrin Hatch and Richard Burr](http://www.finance.senate.gov/newsroom/chairman/release/?id=78F09718-C5CC-47EE-B4E3-C5D33ECC9545) and [Reps. Fred Upton, John Kline and Paul Ryan](http://www.wsj.com/articles/paul-ryan-john-kline-and-fred-upton-an-off-ramp-from-obamacare-1425340840) include the provision. Republican National Committee chairman [Reince Priebus](http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2014/03/21/reince-priebus-gop-obamacare-health-insurance-column/6529321/) has endorsed it. Sen. [Marco Rubio](http://www.nationalreview.com/campaign-spot/230285/marco-rubio-scrapping-obamacare-video-and-transcript-jim-geraghty), another 2016 hopeful, has said nice things about it in the past, as have Sens. [Shelley Moore Capito](http://capitolwords.org/date/2014/09/10/H7394%5Fsupport-the-employee-health-care-protection-act/) and [Roy Blunt](http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/05/gop-sen-roy-blunt-supports-obamacare-provision-that-keeps-kids-under-26-on-parents-plan/). How did this provision become so popular among Republicans? One reason may be that it’s one of the few parts of the law that can stand on its own. Unlike the ban on pre-existing conditions, the federal subsidies for health insurance or the online marketplaces, the under-26 provision can function with or without other parts of the Affordable Care Act, so Republicans who want to dismantle the law root-and-branch can still support it. It’s also effective. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, more than 2 million Americans aged 19-25 [gained new coverage](http://time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/ib%5Funinsured%5Fchange.pdf) because of the under-26 provision. And it’s popular. A 2013 [report](http://time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/1701%5Fcollins%5Fcovering%5Fyoung%5Fadults%5Ftracking%5Fbrief%5Ffinal%5Fv4.pdf) by the nonpartisan Commonwealth Fund found, among other things, that the under-26 provision is more popular among Republicans in the 19-to-25 age group than Democrats. The provision tends to benefits the adult children of Americans with employer-based group health care, a group that tends to be middle and high-income as well. Plus, there appears to be little downside. Sara Collins, a co-author of the Commonwealth report who has studied the effects of the under-26 provision, says the rule had little effect on overall premiums. “Young adults are very inexpensive to insure,” says Collins. Still, the provision has its share of conservative critics. Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney [argued it](http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/30/us/politics/parsing-a-romney-alternative-to-obamas-health-care-law.html?%5Fr=0) was unnecessary in his 2012 run, saying insurers already offered plans that allow it. Former Sen. Jim DeMint, now president of the Heritage Foundation, argued that it [discourages work](http://www.jec.senate.gov/republicans/public/?a=Files.Serve&File%5Fid=7df6d025-0bcf-4a9a-a60c-fd924f3ec968), while the conservative group FreedomWorks once termed it [“the slacker mandate.”](http://www.freedomworks.org/content/grow-republicans-rethinking-slacker-mandate) _With reporting from Zeke Miller/New Hampshire_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3746567/obamacare-under-26-republicans/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3746567/obamacare-under-26-republicans/"},"headline":"How Republicans Learned to Like One Part of Obamacare","datePublished":"2015-03-17T10:00:17.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:47:21.655Z","description":"Jeb Bush is the latest Republican to back keeping a part of the Affordable Care Act that lets you stay on you parent's insurance to age 26.","url":"https://time.com/3746567/obamacare-under-26-republicans/","keywords":["2016 Election","Health Care","2016 Election","Sen. 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