Best Affordable Health Insurance Options for Young Adults

I just live off my credit cards & pray I stay healthy

J of CA 8:21PM April 28, 2011

I am not in College, I Just got a job that; offers me insurance, but is just too costly, it would be a choice between a roof over my head and or food in stomach. I have a recently developed medical condition. I can’t receive any quality care. Emergency Room Doctor's in this area, not providing me with answers. A Library Medical Health Book more insightful; however, I am in need of prescription for proper dosage of suggested cure for my condition. Can't go back to work without a doctor’s clearance. (Nephew’s dilemma)

Cynthia Greene of NY 1:37PM March 07, 2011

I am 27, a college graduate with a bachelor's of arts. Provided I work for free for five years (I cannot afford this, neither can my parents afford to support me,) I could get a stable job in design. Barring that, I went on to do more passionate work in non-profit outdoor education for children and students. The work is satisfying. Through that career path, I am now a licensed USCG Captain, with a mid-level management position in one of the non-profit organizations I work for.

I make less than 10,000 a year, and health insurance is no where near being an option for me. Aside from being in a physically demanding environment of traditionally-rigged ships with hazards that most modern ship-board technology takes care of, along with all the hazard that operating a sailing vessel on the water incurs by it's very nature, I'm around 20-40 random students a week in a very close, tight living arrangement with the rest of the crew.

I have a very high risk for accident and illness. Health care for me is so far from affordable that to make mistakes in my job or my safety, or for any of the students and crew working with me, is not allowed. Not by supervisors, but by fiscal necessity. I must be 110% every day, and make calls on safety and procedure that I will never think twice about, and will never make incorrectly.

When I can afford healthcare, when the crew can, when the organizations can afford to possibly provide it, that is when healthcare will be reformed. There are dozens of folks I know with the same problem - they make very important, life-impacting decisions for themselves and others every day, but one trip to an emergency room would strike down whatever savings they had, and incur debt atop it. Not to mention most of the folks I know already have student loans in excess of 40k USD. They will never, I bet, never pay those debts completely off until they are well into their 40s or 50s, in this economy. In other words, they'll never recover from the loss, while all the while finding it near impossible to make it at with their chosen field of study. They'll never be secure for medical care. By the time they can afford health insurance, many would be eligible for Medicare, or Medicaid, though I doubt it'll still be around.

People complain about socialism. You know what? Public schools, libraries and hospitals ARE SOCIALISM AT WORK. Public transportation? SOCIALISM. Socialist economy, and practice, is not evil. It's to the benefit of the society as a whole. What's bad is a dictatorship, which most confuse Socialism and Communism for, being that self-proclaimed-so nations of constant attention

tend to actually be dictatorships on top of what ever economy they purport to have.

I want a socialist approach to healthcare. You should too.

Dan of NC 5:39PM January 15, 2011

Do you subtract collage loan payments from income? My son makes $12/hour but pays student loans every month, so his income is closer to $8/hour.

Andrew Wagg of MI 11:02PM January 14, 2011