NEW YORK, June 18 (Reuters) - The rate of Americans who

are uninsured will rise to 8.9% over the next decade from 7.7%

in 2024, driven by rising immigration and reduced eligibility

for 19-to-24 year-olds following federal government policy

changes, according to a Congressional Budget Office report

released on Tuesday.

"We expect the uninsured rate for the immigrants arriving in

the surge to be roughly four times the rate for the overall

population," said Jessica Hale, an analyst at the Congressional

Budget Office, Congress' non-partisan budget agency.

"This is largely the result of eligibility for major federal

health programs, which is contingent in part on a person's

immigration status," Hale added.

The 2023 termination of a COVID-19 pandemic-era policy

requiring states to maintain enrollment for Medicaid recipients

and the expiration of additional subsidies on Obamacare plans

are expected to erode the percentage of younger adults who are

insured.

Most of the decline in uninsured will happen in the next two

years. Between 2027 and 2034 the rate of uninsured should

stabilize at around 9%, the report said. This figure,

representing 32 million people, is lower than pre-pandemic

levels due to a projected older U.S. population.

The majority of those above age 65 in the U.S. are covered

by Medicare. In 2034, 17 million people aged 19 to 24 are

expected to be uninsured, Hale said.

This age group is less likely to be offered

employer-sponsored plans and represents a higher portion of

undocumented immigrants, who may be ineligible for

government-funded plans.

While the Affordable Care Act (ACA), widely known as

Obamacare, extends coverage for dependent children to age 26,

just 15% of young adults are on their parents employer-sponsored

plans, the CBO said.

Enrollment in employer-sponsored plans, the most common form

of coverage in the U.S., will grow to 170 million in 2034 from

164 million in 2024, due to lower eligibility for Obamacare

subsidies as wage growth expands the middle-income populace.

Enhanced subsidies for plans introduced by the ACA were

extended through the Inflation Reduction Act and are expected to

expire in 2025. For middle-income households purchasing plans

through ACA marketplaces such as HealthCare.gov, this policy

provides a tax credit and subsidizes the cost of health

insurance premiums.

The rate of uninsured people in the U.S. reached a record

low of 7.2% in 2023. In a May report, the CBO projected that 3.8

million Americans would become uninsured as a result of the

expiration of marketplace subsidies.