Health Reform: Let's Lower—Not Raise—Young Adults' Premiums

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The young lack Health Insurance because they don’t need it.
Government knows how to run insurances? No, absolutely not! Let private industry set the rates and the risk will determine the cost. We do this for life, automotive and property insurances. Lets be fair, meaning each one should pay his way.
The article above is very sensible in proposing lower rates which would prevent that the young are being taken advantage of by our government. However, I would assess smokers and other persons who engage in high risk life-style additional fees as it is the case right now in the private insurance industry.
Wait a second the government is doing that already: don’t smokers pay an additional fee of $1 with each pack of cigarettes, and aren’t the tobacco companies paying billions? Where is that money going? Is it going for the health care of the smokers? No, it is being wasted as will be the excess the young will have to pay for the mandated health insurance.
As for myself, age 68, I refuse to get health insurance at any cost. It is less expensive to walk into a doctor’s office and pay cash for the health-services received without paying for the paper shufflers, administrators and the unnecessary government requirements placed upon the providers. As for medications I purchase those that treat the disease only and not the ones that treat the symptoms. I despise the feel-good medications pushed by the pharmaceutical Industry.
It is a rip-off to charge someone for something one doesn’t need just to divert the funds to the masses of free-loaders. I can go along with compulsory low cost catastrophic-insurance but violently reject a government mandated health insurance that has no relation to the risk or the services provided.
As to the current problem government is bellyaching about and is attempting to unload onto the young: A Medicare, Medicaid insurance run by private industry would have prevented the underfunding problem.
But we know, government is not interested/capable of solving problems. Instead of a fair solution they are preoccupied with buying votes and gaining control over each of us. The young need to hit the votig boots to be recognized. The old do know that their vote can be counted on.

Werner Strasser of KY 7:47PM August 26, 2009

I am single and 39. I live in a suburb north of NYC and I started me own computer repair business after being laid off almost 2 years ago. As a sole proprietor in NYS it is impossible to get decent insurance for much below 500 a month unless you earn under 28k a year in which case you are entitled to something called HealthyNY which for right now I am on. It allows me discounted insurance thru some of the major carriers. I currently have PPO plan with GHI which I pay $297 a month. GHI was the cheapest HealthyNY participant. The others like Empire were anywhere between $300 and $400 a month. For a single guy living on his own trying to build a business even the nearly $300 I currently pay is to much. And once I break the 28k year income barrier I won't be entitled to it. So if next year my earnings jump to say 35k I won't be able to afford insurance next year because due to some crazy laws in NYS only two carriers even offer individual plans the cost is about $469 a month and thats for a PPO without office visit coverage from GHI, over 169 dollars more a month outside of the HealthyNY version of the package and I lose the office visit coverage. The other is nearly $200 a month worthless indemnity plan thru Empire and the remaining plan also thru Empire is an HMO package for get this, a whopping $1141 a month. Those are the only insurance options available to me once I break the 28k income barrier. Pretty bad if you ask me. In this area you can't live on 28k year. How the hell would they expect me to afford nearly 500-1200 bucks a month for health insurance.

AMN of NY 7:42PM August 26, 2009

Saving/collecting money now for future expenses is a good idea. I think this is what some people are suggesting the bill will do. However there are two things to note. First is that insurance is a private industry and money paid now will simply go to their profits, it is most definitely not going to be saved to pay future health care costs. Second, If the government where to begin taking some sort of control over the industry, which it isn't trying to do, take a look at social security... do you feel safe leaving your retirement up to ss? Government nor business leaders strategies suggested saving money, (in the sense of a piggy bank). Its not in our culture, nor in the minds of our leaders. Every system is merely cash in cash out.
As a young person, 23, and a liberal, it is frustrating to read about a bill that isn't really that good for the country. I believe Obama will lead us in the right direction but he needs to stop being such a pussy. His compromising has only causes the most influential and often effective parts of his plans to fail.

Alex of MN 7:32PM August 26, 2009

I agree with the author. Many seem to forget that young workers are already paying Medicare taxes (2.9% of income with employer match, and no income cap like social security). Our two 20-somethings are paying higher premiums than our retired parents for their health insurance, and paying Medicare taxes as well. Also, our kids don't get a tax break for buying their own insurance.
I'd also like to see wealthy seniors being asked to pay more for their Medicare coverage. Right now our system has 23 year olds just starting out paying taxes to subsidize the medications of a 79 year old millionaire (I realize that this is a minority, but let's remember that the greatest concentration of wealth in in America is with those over 65, not those 30 and under). It doesn't seem right to me.

SoCal Gal of CA 7:11PM August 26, 2009

Sure, I pay little compared to other plans but my insurance is really not an insurance, its a discount for when I go to the doctor. I wish I had enough for a real insurance but this is all I can afford right now. My school makes it mandatory to have health insurance.

Angelou of TX 7:07PM August 26, 2009

It is true we get the 500 to 1400 a year types of insurance but because we don't have a choice. Have you stopped and read what is covered under those insurance options? basically nothing, most are just a discount and not even a real insurance.

Angelou of TX 7:02PM August 26, 2009

It is the same formula because there really is no other formula. I might even support it if the politicians would stop lying about it. But no, they insist on some fairy tale of "something for nothing, or next to nothing". This is cost shifting, not cost reduction. The people want top of the line health care, but somebody else should pay for it. Wake up, the government has no money .... it is our money, and it is redistributed primarily to buy votes, not provide services. Have you visited a VA hospital lately?

Andrew Zaplatynsky of NY 6:33PM August 26, 2009

1. All people should NOT be forced to have health insurance,
if they don't want it.
That's what a free country is about. Freedom
2. I personally do NOT want government taking over the health
of ANY American in the U.S. including me.
3. I do not want to see socialized medicine or a socialist
government in the U.S. If I wanted socialism/communism I
would move to Russia, Cuba, etc.
OUR HEALTH SYSTEM IS NOT PERFERT BUT IT IS THE BEST IN THE
WORLD. Obama's health care plan leads the way for a
national I.D. card for us all. Just like in Nazi Germany.
Whatever Obama wants for us. . . . it is bad for America.

JaNice Henley of TX 6:31PM August 26, 2009

where are you getting these numbers from? even my from employer insurance which is much less expensive for family coverage than If I bought it on my own is $254.00 per month. At one year that is a cost of $3,048.00 per year. obviously I am not in the 100,000 and up per year salary range. I do not know how you come up with a policy only costing someone 5 or 6 hundred dollars yearly. I am sure these exist. I am also sure they cover nothing or have low caps on them so that if something actually happened to you you would be on your own after a certain limit was reached.. I imagine a very low limit.
It is time to STOP misinforming.. don't just drop numbers like these, and if you do.. give the details of the policy so people actually know what that money would get them.

Cindy of TX 6:01PM August 26, 2009