Adam Rapp of Fall Creek Township, Ill., will have one of the best seats in the House as President Barack Obama addresses a joint session of Congress Tuesday night.
President Obama’s 2011 State of the Union address to Congress (Chuck Kennedy/White House via Wikimedia Commons)
In a custom dating back to the Reagan administration, the first lady’s guest list for the annual State of the Union address combines both personal and political considerations. Guests are often selected as exemplars of administration policies or topics the president will discuss during his speech.
A release from the White House describes Rapp as someone who benefited from the 2010 health law’s provision mandating that adult children remain eligible for coverage under their parents’ health insurance plans until their 26th birthdays. Rapp, diagnosed with cancer on his 23rd birthday, was able to remain on his parents’ policy during his treatment.
Rapp told the Quincy Herald-Whig that without the change in the law, “I definitely wouldn’t have gotten the treatment I needed. There’s no other way to put it.”
Government data show 2.5 million young adults have taken advantage of this provision.