Young People and Healthcare Reform: Fact-Check

Last month, President Barack Obama held a rally at the University of Maryland to emphasize the necessity for Health Care Reform. It was not by chance that he chose a college campus to deliver this critical message. The President wanted to speak directly to young adults about the importance of healthcare reform and why young people stand to lose more than any other group if reform fails. Young adults aged 19-29 are the nation’s largest group of uninsured, making up nearly one-third of the uninsured population in the United States.

Thirty percent of young adults do not have health insurance, compared to 17 percent of older adults (those aged 30-64). Here in Prince George’s County, there are 151,000 uninsured and 100,000 underinsured residents—this includes about 45,300 residents between the ages of 19-29.

This startling reality exists despite the fact that many young people are employed. Twenty-eight percent of young adults who are employed are uninsured, while only 16 percent of working older adults are uninsured. This is, in part, due to the fact that nearly half of employed young adults only work part-time and are not offered coverage, and young adults are more likely to work in small businesses, which are less likely to offer coverage. Indeed, for firms employing less than 10 workers, the erosion in coverage over time has been striking—57 percent of firms offered coverage in 2000 vs. 49 percent in 2008. Among young adults working in small businesses with less than 10 employees, the uninsurance rate reaches 50 percent.

Young women face another unique challenge—disparities in insurance premiums. In 33 states, insurance companies are permitted to charge higher premiums based on age, gender, and health status without any restrictions whatsoever. Younger women are often charged higher premiums than men during their reproductive years. A 22-year-old woman can be charged one and a half times the premium of a 22-year-old man. Such a premium hike can mean the difference between coverage that is affordable and coverage that is prohibitively expensive.

In one recent survey, two-thirds of young adults who had a gap in coverage said they had forgone needed health care because of cost, including failing to fill a prescription, not seeing a doctor when sick, or skipping a recommended test or treatment. Two-thirds of uninsured young adults also have no usual source of care, compared with 17 percent of young adults who do have insurance. One in six young adults have a common chronic condition such as high blood pressure, asthma, or cancer; one-quarter of young adults are obese; and one in six young adults end up in the ER because of an injury – the highest rate of injury-related ER visits among any age group.

More than one-third of all young adults (with or without health insurance) reported problems with paying medical bills, including having trouble making payments, being contacted by a collection agency, or significantly changing their way of life in order to make payments. One in four young adults reported medical debt. This problem is significantly worse for those without insurance. Nearly half of uninsured young adults (49 percent) reported problems with medical bills, and nearly 40 percent carried medical debt.

Health insurance reform will help repair a broken healthcare system that leaves too many young adults without affordable coverage and saddled with medical debt. Historic healthcare legislation could be on the floor of both houses of Congress as early as mid-October. As Young Democrats, we urge our Congressional Representatives to pass this much-needed reform, without further delay. I encourage all Prince Georgians to read the proposed healthcare reform legislation on the Senate Finance Committee’s website, http://finance.senate.gov/sitepages/legislation.htm.

Visit www.pgcyd.org to learn more about young Americans and healthcare reform.

Sincerely,
Nicole A. Williams
President of the Prince George’s County Young Democrats
Email: President@pgcyd.org
Website: http://www.pgcyd.org