MADISON, Wis.—The Wisconsin Office of the Commissioner of Insurance has issued an emergency rule implementing a new law that extends health insurance coverage for residents up to 27 years old.

The rule, which Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle announced last week, allows residents up to age 27 to receive health coverage through their parents’ health care plan. The rule clarified a law passed in June that “ensures that young adults will have access to affordable health insurance coverage through their parents,” Gov. Doyle said in a statement.

The Wisconsin governor noted that young adults are a group that traditionally has high levels of people who are unisured.

To be eligible for coverage through their parents’ health care plans, young adults must be older than 17 but younger than 27 years of age, unmarried, and either ineligible for health coverage through their own employer or whose premium contribution for coverage through their employer is greater than what parents would have to pay to add them to their health insurance.

Further, the rule clarifies that an adult child who is a full-time student and is called to active military duty also is eligible for the coverage. The rule states that the adult child has up to 12 months after completing active duty to apply for full-time student status at an institution of higher education.

The statute affects health insurance policies issued or renewed beginning on Jan. 1, 2010.