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

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Young Americans and old, employed or not, have and have had lower cost health insurance available to them becasue it is pay as you go-- as long as you are young enough and healthy enough. In order to have real insurance (like Medicare) that you are able to keep even as you age and become more ill, we need to pay MORE.
Sorry, we have to pay more, for real insurance, insurance with the added promise that your insurance will still remain available at a reasonable price to you when ani if you become more expensive to insure. That applies whether you are young or old, health conscious or an obese smoker.
Up until now, Americans have deluded themselves with the hope that "it can't happen ome"-- that they I will keep my job and insurance benefits or save enough cash to buy my own insurance and pay for their share of health costs until I make it into Medicare at 65. Now more and more are finding it didn't work-- they never paid for or earned the right to continued insurance.
We need to commit to buying (whether single pay, universal health, or private insurance) real insurance that lasts for our lifetime, which means paying higher premiums when we are healthy to build a reserve for ewhn we are not.
It would be unfair to make young peole excessively bear the burden for odler Americans who didn't build up this necessary reserve, so the extra money needs to come from charging older Americans more, or just having Americans generally pay more through income or other taxes. Consider charging smokers, the obese etc. a surcharge as well. But just having young Amrercans continue the mistakes of the past of paying for cheap insurance as you go without bulding a reserve for the future just ignores the problem.

John Flory of NV 5:31PM August 26, 2009

The comment posting thing wasn't working - so I kept trying to get it to work.

AC of CA 5:30PM August 26, 2009

You pay more then you should as a young healthy person, but you will also pay less then you should as a disease-prone old individual. It is more like you protect yourself for the future. You invest and prevent loosing loads of money or go bankrupt when you'll be old. That is the vision for the unreliable future. Americans don't have that. they want to have all their money now and Medicare back-up when old.
Me Me Me...can you not see that if you have less unhealthy people in the streets, your communities would be happier, you will be happier. It is all about investing in your well being, whether is in your house or in your neighborhood.
The peace of mind...if you loose your job, you know you are not doomed in the event of illness...you won't loose your house. That is you are less stressed, you'll feel better, happier. Or you people like to be stressed?

Ucu of ME 5:29PM August 26, 2009

This is a very sensible and thoughtful suggestion. Very moderate.
WHAT ARE YOU? SOME KIND OF SOCIALIST? THEY'RE GUNNA TAKE OUR GUNS! DEATH PANELS! HITLER WOULD SUPPORT HEALTH CARE REFORM!

SODDI of GA 5:27PM August 26, 2009

I'm 26 and I just got fired 2 months ago. There is no way I am going to pay 300 dollars a month of money I don't have for health insurance when I can and do have a gym membership for 32 dollars a month which is more than I need to stay healthy.
The serious problem this country is facing is paying for seniors who need to be put to pasture. There is not enough money by any calculation to pay for them.
The first babyboomers will be collecting full social security Jan 1st 2010 and from that day on for 16 years the young producing population is going to be burdened by them.
Lawmakers are going to have to decided weather to cater to the votes of the old or the actual work force that can make and spend money for economic growth.

www.tptalker.blogspot.com of NJ 5:26PM August 26, 2009

Of the many differences between our current unsustainable healthcare system and the more effective and affordable systems of almost all other industrialized nations, one of the most salient is the principle of risk sharing. It requires all adults to be insured, with only small differences according to age. In the Netherlands, which possesses one of the most effective systems in the world, the premiums are exactly the same, independent of age, health status, pre-existing conditions, or other variables. The success of these systems in providing better health outcomes for their societies than we do here (longer life, lower infant mortality rates), and their success in keeping costs at only about half of ours, provides strong evidence that the concept of a society as a "community", with common interests and shared risks yields better results than attempts to pit groups against each other based on differences. The latter always punishes the disadvantaged, and is one reason, among many others, why our current system is failing and must be changed. Ultimately, almost everyone goes from young adult to older adult, and in societies with a communal attitude, the sense of sharing ultimately works in behalf of young and old alike.

Fred Moolten of PA 5:24PM August 26, 2009

These uninsured young people would not be forced to buy more expensive coverage under the current bill being discussed in the House. They would be required to buy insurance, but this would be subsidized and remain cheaper for them than current options for buying unsubsidized insurance currently. What is left out is that the prices that students are paying are also subsidized, just not transparently or evenly. Young people outside of school have to pay considerably more than is listed here for coverage that is anywhere approaching decent. That most do not buy such coverage is the result of the byzantine structures of plans offered, which most realize do not provide any real benefits unless they pay much more than their average health care costs will likely be until they are older or have any financial resources to actually protect. Without much in the bank or investments most young people, especially men, reckon that any catastrophic medical costs would be picked up by the state or hospital in an emergency room anyway. We actually pay for those uninsured young, we just don't admit it under current circumstances.

of 5:22PM August 26, 2009

I have a devious plan - let's get all the old Americans together, and screw the young! Here's how:
1) Set up a retirement fund that transfers money from the young to the old, but then runs out of money before the young get to collect.
2) Pay for most medical bills for the old out of a fund paid for by all, that runs out of money before the young get to use it.
3) Introduce an expensive new drug benefit solely for the old, paid for by all, that will help bankrupt the country long before the young...well, you get the point.
4) Cut taxes and increase spending to create a HUGE and enduring budget deficit, because we oldies will get most of the goodies, and we will be dead long before it has to be repaid...by the young!
5) Support wars of choice fought by the young, and in which only the young die, while we yell at the damn terrorists from the comfort of our homes. We won't sacrifice anything, because it will be funded by deficits, not higher taxes or reduced spending. And we won't have to pay for them, of course, because we'll be dead before the bills come due.
6) Pass laws forcing the young into expensive insurance programs to subsidize our lavishly wasteful health care. Persecute anyone considering rationing or "death panels" for us. Of course, eventually we'll have to ration health care...but we'll be long (and comfortably) gone by then!
Oh, wait, that's already been done....
I understand why young people in America, or anywhere else, don't really pay attention to politics...we're too busy building careers, sizing up potential mates, having fun, learning to do our taxes, raising children, buying houses...but we are letting the older generation (led by the AARP) steal our entire future from us. Who will pay the estimated $9 trillion deficits of the next 10 years? The currently retired, or us? Who will feel the crushing burden of the higher income taxes (or VAT, which seems inevitable) that are sure to come? Them, or us? Who will face retirement without the bankrupt Medicare and Social Security funds?
Wake up, young people! It's not the rich versus the poor in America...it's the young versus the old!

Young and Angry of CA 5:14PM August 26, 2009

This is the best you could come up with? Yes, lets turn the uninsured young population into the underinsured. That will solve all our problems, NOT. How dumb do you think we are? Look at the polls, people who are 35 and under, support universal healthcare by strong margins. You can sell this nonsense to the blithering idiots at the town halls, but folks who have been without insurance understand the importance of comprehensive care. I for one know about it personally as I have gone through several periods without insurance because I couldn't afford private insurance. Thank God I'm healthy. I am sick and tired of paying for the mess the baby boomers created and I do not want to pay for their healthcare or retirement. Two benefits I am unlikely to recieve because they will be used up by the selfish baby boomer crowd. However, I see the greater good and the bigger picture and I am more than happy to contribute more than my fair share, if it means that my fellow Americans get some peace of mind. When we help the weakest among us, we all prosper.

BB of PA 5:09PM August 26, 2009

This kind of scare tactics against change is not new. Republicans used it very well to give us the Iraq War, Patriot Act etc. This is nothing new.
All of a sudden Universal health care will raise taxes, premiums. Whereas we Nationalized our banks with 700+ billion dollars of tax payer money to fuel their private jets and huge bonuses. No resistance there huh?
Now the same tactics for impeding a health care reform that our country needs desperately.
It's about time we got smarter and see the truth of the Corporate lobbyists.
Without health care is a scary thing and I think Obama should use this to push for a reform that will reduce cost by 1 trillion dollar and put the selfish and almost criminal medical insurance companies in check.

SS of CA 5:04PM August 26, 2009