Sign of the Times: "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 20's."

In an article headlined "For Insurance, Adult Children Ride Piggy Back," the New York Times explores an outgrowth of the "twixter" or "boomerang kid" phenomenon: kids hanging on to their parents' health insurance. This one, however, is fueled not just by impoverished recent grads and obliging parents, but by state legislatures and insurance companies. "The trend stems from a concern that a healthy -- and profitable -- segment of the population is dropping out of the insurance pool," says the Times.

In the past couple of years many states have upped the cutoff age at which young adults must leave Mom and Dad's health insurance nest. New Jersey, the article notes, has a particularly lax cutoff, allowing "kids" to stay on their parents' plan until they reach 30. Insurance companies have embraced such legislation because many young adults simply go without insurance (read: don't pay premiums) when they run out of time on their parents' policies.

A feeling of invincibility isn't the reason many (30 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds) young adults forgo health insurance--nor is it necessarily a desire to sponge off Mom and Dad for a few more years. As Maribeth noted in an earlier post, lack of funds and/or lack of employer-sponsored health care is keeping young adults from getting their own coverage.

Of course, there are old-school scolds out there who think this is all hogwash--just another example of coddling to Kippers (Kids in Parents' Pockets Eroding Retirement Savings). "When I was your age ..."

[Hat tip]: to Time Magazine for the generation tags.