Adult children are more likely to get care and see a doctor when they are allowed to stay on their parents' health insurance longer, a new study finds.

Researchers from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine found that laws permitting children to stay on their parents' health insurance through age 26 result in improved access to health care compared to states without those laws.

The researchers analyzed the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey and compared the period before the state laws were enacted (2002 to 2004) to the period after the state laws went into effect (2008 to 2009). In the 34 states that had such laws, they say, the affected patients had greater rates of health insurance, were more likely to identify a personal physician and receive a physical exam, and were less likely to forgo care due to cost.