When I lived in Jerusalem an eon or so ago, a lot of my friends were Orthodox — It’s an inevitability of the city’s demographics.
One thing struck me: 26 was a cut-off for women to get married. There was an orthodoxy (forgive me) — and I don’t know if it persists — that after your 26th birthday, you accepted whatever shidduch you were lucky enough to get.
Coincidentally, 26 is also the cut off date for dependent kids to benefit from their parents’ health plans under the new U.S. health care package.
Rep. Ron Klein (D-Fla.) knows his Orthodox Jews — there are plenty in his district, encompassing parts of Broward and Palm Beach counties — and when he say that the cut-off date for married dependents was 21, as opposed to 26 for singles, he set about fixing it.
He did, and now married Americans dependent on their parents may claim their health plan benefits until their 26th birthday.
Vos Iz Neias gives Klein his props.
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