Health-Care Law Helps Young Nonprofit Workers Get Coverage—From Their Parents

Many young nonprofit workers are already taking advantage of the new federal health-care law, a Chronicle study finds.

A provision that allows children to remain on a parent’s health plan until age 26 took effect soon after President Obama signed the law in 2010. About 26 percent of new employees in the survey report that they don’t receive health insurance from their employers. Of that group, just under half get it through their parents.

The online survey of more than 900 people who have been in the nonprofit work force for less than five years was conducted with help from the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance and the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network.

Analiese Kovisto, 23, works as a part-time marketing associate at CASA of Adams and Broomfield Counties, a Denver nonprofit that trains people to advocate for children who have been abused or neglected. She says the ability to remain on her mother’s health plan has been a lifesaver.

“I don’t know what I’d do without that,” says Ms. Kovisto. “I’ve got three more years to figure something out.”

‘It’s a Hardship’

Lindsay Benhammou, who works as a behavioral therapist for a low-cost health-care clinic west of Denver, isn’t so fortunate.

Her job is a contract position, which means that no health insurance is provided. And, at age 30, she’s too old to get coverage from her parents.

“It’s a hardship,” says Ms. Benhammou, who estimates that she earns about $30,000 a year and owes some $66,000 in student loans.

While her heart lies in nonprofit work, Ms. Benhammou concedes she’ll probably have to search for more lucrative options, including working in private practice or for a hospital.

Ms. Benhammou isn’t alone. The Chronicle’s survey found that early-career workers whose employers did not offer health coverage were much more likely to seek other jobs than workers whose organizations did provide that benefit.

Groups that can’t offer health insurance risk losing employees, says Trish Tchume, director of the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network.

“An organization can be doing everything right in terms of leadership and professional development, but if it can’t afford to offer health care and there’s no other viable option for that employee, that person simply may not stay,” she says.

Ms. Tchume notes that the issue of health insurance is one that resonates with her personally. When she was offered the top job at the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network, she was told she would not get health benefits.

As the group’s former board chair, Ms. Tchume was well aware of the budgetary constraints that had led to that decision but still felt she couldn’t accept the job without health insurance.

“Thankfully the board decided to take the financial risk and cover a portion of my insurance,” she says. “I definitely would have had to walk away without that benefit.”