Roy Blunt to Michelle Malkin: Not a ‘slacker mandate’

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Senator Roy Blunt appeared on MSNBC this morning to refute blogger Michelle Malkin, after she criticized him for supporting the health care provision allowing children to stay on their parent’s health insurance until they are 26.

Blunt disagreed with Malkin’s characterization that the provision was an “unfunded slacker mandate.”

“Well, I wouldn’t call it that,” Blunt said. “It’s not unfunded at all – people pay for it when they pay for their family coverage – and my view, it doesn’t add much to family coverage for the very reason that, Luke, people your age and a little younger don’t have insurance often is they think they’re not going to need it, and they’re usually right.”

Blunt argued that a lot of states already allow children to stay on their parent’s health insurance until the age of 22.

“I don’t know if there’s a difference here,” he added. “If you’re not a slacker at 22 but you are a slacker at 23? Probably not.”