— Not only are children moving back home after college and asking Mom and Dad for monthly subsidies, but in a growing number of states children can now stay on their parents' health insurance plans well into their 20s.

With 18- to 34-year-olds the fastest-growing group of uninsured, states are extending the time that children can be dependents for insurance purposes.

In New Jersey, which this year enacted the highest age limit, children can "piggyback" until they turn 30, as long as they live in the state and don't have their own children.

About 30 percent of adults ages 18 to 24, and more than one-quarter of adults 25 to 34, are uninsured, according to figures released by the Census Bureau in August.

Before this year, laws extending health coverage had been passed in Colorado, Massachusetts, New Mexico, South Dakota and Texas. Utah passed the first law, in 1994. Delaware and Rhode Island passed such laws last July.

The availability of health insurance has become a problem for young adults. One reason employers are reluctant to hire full-time employees is the rising cost of benefits. The percentage of employers offering health insurance dropped to 60 percent in 2005, down from 66 percent in 2000, according to a survey of employers conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Susan Pisano, a spokeswoman for America's Health Insurance Plans, an industry group, said that while insurance companies generally did not oppose laws that extend the age limit by a couple of years, New Jersey's law might take it too far.

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