In the parlance of the health care industry, Ms. [Alanna] Boyd, whose case remains unresolved, is among the “young invincibles” ”” people in their 20s who shun insurance either because their age makes them feel invulnerable or because expensive policies are out of reach. Young adults are the nation’s largest group of uninsured ”” there were 13.2 million of them nationally in 2007, or 29 percent, according to the latest figures from the Commonwealth Fund, a nonprofit research group in New York.
Gov. David A. Paterson of New York has proposed allowing parents to claim these young adults as dependents for insurance purposes up to age 29, as more than two dozen other states have done in the past decade. Community Catalyst, a Boston-based health care consumer advocacy group, released a report this month urging states to ease eligibility requirements to allow adult children access to their parents’ coverage.
“There’s a big sense of urgency,” said Susan Sherry, the deputy director of Community Catalyst. She described uninsured young adults as especially vulnerable. “People are losing their jobs, and a lot of jobs don’t carry health insurance. They’re new to the work force, they’ve been covered under their parents or school plans, and then they drop off the cliff.”
If Governor Paterson’s proposal is approved, an estimated 80,000 of the 775,000 uninsured young adults across New York State would be covered under their parents’ insurance plans. That would leave hundreds of thousands to continue relying on a scattershot network of improvised and often haphazard health care remedies.
In dozens of interviews around the city, these so-called young invincibles described the challenge of living in a high-priced city on low-paying jobs, where staying healthy is one part scavenger hunt and one part balancing act, with high stakes and no safety net.
I know it. I live it. I have a birth defect that has not needed medical attention in years, but looks expensive on paper. It would cost more then we make in a month to get insurance, so until I can land a job that has group health care, I live one hospital visit away from bankruptcy. I know universal Gov. run health care is not a popular opinion here. I’d love to hear a private plan that let me afford at least emergency health coverage.
I knew and lived it when my wife and I were younger and I was between undergrad and graduate school. We were eating macaroni and beany-weenies and I drove a rusted out Pontiac (also uninsured).
I know it and live it, too, but from the other side, now. There are a lot of my younger patients who eschew health insurance simply because they don’t want to cramp their lifestyle. They have cell phones and new cars.
The proposal of allowing these “big kids” to be on their parents’ insurance till 29 is an intriguing one, but it would only help about 10% of the young adults.
My bias: I hate insurance companies. They do provide a service but at way too high a price. There is very little competition and it is decreasing every year because of the mega-mergers. How much should reasonable administrative costs be?
Is it fair or reasonable for a individual young adult to approach Anthem and knock on the door of a 27 story plush office building and ask, “Please, could you give me affordable health insurance?” The only way for these young adults to get affordable insurance is to band together and then tell Anthem that you want insurance for the same rate that you sell it to Wal-mart employees, or you are taking your comrades down the street. How about having whole towns have group insurance plans?
Or how about government universal health care. People talk about Medicare for all. No, it would be Medicaid for all. And, as Massachusetts is finding out, there are no docs willing to take it. So you can go to the local community health care system (which will have to be ramped up at a time when states are going broke).
How about a “charity hospital” run by the government. Big 20 bed wards, paid physicians and staff, no malpractice, folks are billed on a sliding scale based on their tax returns and assets. Outpatient clinic staffed on a shoe string – come early and wait all day.
That is what we had before the government started up Medicare. Private insurance and private physicians were for wealthy folk. On the other hand, there was some level of care for everybody, and nobody went bancrupt.
VA medical care for all. It is actually not a bad system. Rich folk don’t like it. Neither do lawyers.
How about outlawing or at least taxing healthcare that is provided as an employment benefit? And providing a deduction for all healthcare expenses. The current situation does not provide for competition. Forcing people to acknowledge how much they spend on insurance would stimulate competition immediately. You only have to look at the Auto Insurance industry.
#4 Agree with all of the above. But a safety net public hospital would be useful. Right now the safety net if fraying from scant to absent.
My son attends a major university with a large teaching hospital. How I WISH the teaching hospital/university would offer an affordable HMO for students and residents of the area. (I know the faculty and staff are state employees but maybe they could have the HMO as a benefit option, too.) They give students a good discount for paying cash at University Medical Center but even half price of the tests and such can be costly.
I’m disabled and have Medicare so I can’t cover my son. The Unum policy we were offered when he was a freshman wasn’t very expensive premium-wise but the out-of-pocket costs were VERY high and the policy didn’t pay much. Clearly, they were providing “insurance” that banked on it not being used. Luckily, he can see doctors at the campus health services center for $10 but if he ever needs tests and extensive treatment, yikes.
It’s a big problem.