With the passing of the health care reform bill on Sunday, young adults can now stay on their parents’ health insurance until they are 26 years old.

The benefits that come with the age extension would give students more flexibility in terms of health care coverage and might save them money as well, Jim Riddlesperger, a political science professor, said.

Riddlesperger said that generally speaking, children in their 20s are healthy. Many of them do not have to take advantage of health insurance, but because students have to have some form of health insurance to be able to attend the university, he said students need to be somewhat concerned.

“There are only two ways you can (receive health insurance): one is to be on your parent’s program and the other is to buy through TCU, which costs a lot of money,” Riddlesperger said. “So the extension on health insurance saves a lot of students money.”

Riddlesperger said that because this bill is still fresh, it’s difficult to tell how much the extension on insurance will impact the public. All of the effects of the bill are guesswork at this point, in terms of how much money is going to be saved, he said.

“One of the things about this whole program that is a little bit of a misnomer is the fact that we don’t really know what is going to happen with some of the provisions because we won’t be able to find out until we take it out for a try,” he said.

According to the Brown-Lupton Health Center Web site, the cost of the university-offered insurance plan is $670 per semester with a $250 deductible.

Marilyn Hallam, assistant to the director of Health Services, said that Aetna Insurance is the official student insurance of the university and 20 percent of students currently utilize it.

An Aetna representative who declined to give her name said students shouldn’t anticipate any changes to university health care coverage right away.

“It’s too soon to see any visible changes in health coverage, but students will be notified as soon as possible if any occur,” the representative said.

In Texas, dependent children may remain enrolled in a parent’s health plan up to age 25, according to the Texas Department of Insurance. Under the Texas Insurance Code, health insurance policies may cover not only unmarried children under 25 but also grandchildren.

According to 2007 figures from the U.S. Census Bureau, 959,351 people ages 18-24 in Texas are uninsured, representing about 40.8 percent of the population in that age category.

Roughly a third of people in their 20s are uninsured nationwide, so allowing young adults to remain on their parents’ plans until 26 would be a significant new option for families.

Adult children would not be able to stay on a parental plan if they had access to employer coverage of their own. But they could get married and still be covered. (Grandkids, however, would not qualify.) Regulations will clarify to what degree young adults have to be financially dependent on their parents.

Other reforms starting this year would prevent insurers from canceling the policies of people who get sick, from denying coverage to children with medical problems, and from putting lifetime dollar limits on a policy.

These changes will spread risks more broadly, but they’re also likely to nudge insurance premiums somewhat higher.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.