The Millennial Generation Steps Up For Health Care Reform
To be an organizer, you have to have faith in people. Faith that if you give people the power to make decisions, they will do the right thing. You also have to have faith that people are compassionate and that they aspire to be decent in their actions, as the right thing for oneself has to be balanced with the right thing for all. Occasionally little things happen that reaffirm this faith. For example, recently I was sitting in the Phoenix airport, killing time waiting for a connecting flight to L.A., so I bought the newspaper and went to the bar near my gate. I was tired, weary from travel and a bit heartbroken (long story), but happy to have a beer and my paper. A woman, maybe 45 years old, was sitting two tables over. When she left she stopped by my table, put her hand on my shoulder and said 'I wish you well and hope everything works out. You just look sad.' She smiled and walked away. I was a bit startled -- do I really look that sad? How did she even notice? And how kind of her to just wish me well. When I asked for the check, the waitress informed me that someone wanted to buy me a drink. I can only assume it was this same woman. I declined the drink, but sat there for a few minutes absorbing the random act of pure kindness from this perfect stranger.
The health care debate has made me think a lot about this premise of faith in people. The change we need in our health care system in this country is both about making individuals' lives better, but also about the moral obligation that we as Americans have to take care of our fellow citizens. I believe that most people want what is best for themselves, but I also trust that no one wants someone in our country to die or go bankrupt because they got sick and couldn't get the care they needed.
Rock the Vote has been involved in the health care debate, raising the oft-overlooked voice of young adults to ensure that their needs and interests are taken into account as policies and decisions get made. The Millennial generation is incredibly supportive (more so than any other age group) of comprehensive health care reform -- both because they are the biggest losers under our current system and because they have hope for a better future for themselves and our country.
Young Americans are the most uninsured age group in our country. They are living and breathing the health care issue, most of them hoping every day that they will not suffer an accident or illness that will put them in deep debt for years to come. Some who have health care face higher and higher out of pocket costs as insurance companies continue to limit the scope of their coverage.
In the United States today, a 25-year-old freelance writer with a "pre-existing condition" is excluded from buying insurance in the private market. A 19 year-old mechanic doesn't receive insurance through work and can't afford it on his own. A 28 year-old bank employee and single mother does have insurance, but worries about the rising costs of premiums and her job security. Two thirds (66 percent) of uninsured young adults between the ages of 19 and 29 went without necessary care because of costs in 2007.
So Rock the Vote has been educating young adults about the health care proposals, giving our audience ways to voice their opinion in the legislative process, and amplifying their stories and comments on Capitol Hill and in the media. Our friends Zack Braff and Donald Faison from Scrubs helped us out. They might not be doctors in real life but they play them on TV, and they understand what's at stake. Check out their Rock the Vote video.
The first specific provision we have been rallying around is allowing young adults to stay on their parent's health care plans through age 26. This alone would provide insurance to one of every three uninsured young adults. We expect an announcement about this on Tuesday (today!) so stay tuned for updates.
In 2008, young people turned out to vote in record numbers. More 18-29 year-olds voted than in any previous U.S. election. They put faith in those they elected to do the right thing, to represent them in deciding things, like how health care works in our country. We don't have well-funded lobbyists or millions of advertising dollars like many constituencies, but we care and we want real reform that works for young people and for all people.
Join us in demanding health insurance reform that works for all Americans at Rock The Vote.
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Hopefully, all those millennials will realize one day that they all enthusiastically voted for a man that is bankrupting the country and saddling all of them with enormous debt, crippling tax burdens, and downward mobility..... congrats, kids!
Um, OK, Obama put us billions of dollars in debt and when he took office we had a huge surplus.
Oh wait, that was W, not Obama. Obama came into office with the largest debt the country has ever seen, an ongoing never ending war that is draining us dry that was started (and finished [mission accomplished]) by W.
And he also inherited the 2nd(?) worst depression this country has ever seen, which was caused by W, his cronnies and their turning a blind eye (yeah right) to the corrupt and unsustainable practices of the financial sector.
Oh, but the repubs must smoke pot because they have the shortest term memory EVAR!
Duh. Young people don't *need* insurance at all for the most part, except perhaps catastrophic coverage.
Not true at all, my son is $14,000.00 dollars in debt from an accident that broke his jaw. His girlfriend is about #20, 000.00 in debt from an emergency appendectomy. Age is not an issue....all need health coverage.
Actually, none of us needs INSURANCE. What we need is AFFORDABLE HEALTHCARE. Even the young people.
Even with my insurance, my son's broken leg ended up costing me close to $5000 and he will have "arthritis" in that leg / knee before he is 20. His best friend had testicular cancer at 17, and will never be able to buy individual insurance under the current racket.
I have worried since that accident about covering my son once he graduates HS. We aren't sure we can afford a full-time course-load, even at the local comm coll. There are no part-time jobs with benefits, and darn few full time, entry level ones at that, in our area.
I will say it again - I would happily pay a little more in taxes (or my current insurance premiums + some in taxes) to cover the uninsured young and create the kind of pooling that would mean universal coverage if we could get rid of the mafia-style protection racket that currently passes for an insurance "industry" .
Some of the proposals in the current Baucus bill could cause me to lose my job because the nature of the services my company provides would be severely hamstringed, thus forcing me into a government handout. I do not want more government freebies at someone else's expense, I want my company to remain prosperous so that I can continue to have employer-provided insurance coverage. I think joblessness for 20-somethings is a bigger issue than health insurance. This 25 year old doesn't need a dime of coverage from the government, I need to still have a job in a year. I say that anyone who is healthy who wants a public insurance option should have to serve in the military for at least 4 years to repay the benefits they will receive from a public option. As a country, we need to get over our sense of entitlement to getting something for nothing from the government.
Wow! That 18 to 21 year old must have some killer insurance if it pays for cosmetic procedures like breast implants and collagen lip implants.
Many if not most insurance plans already deny coverage for cosmetic procedures so I don't feel that your argument holds up here.
MediCare and insurance provided to military personnel and their families even consider dentures to be cosmetic even when one has no teeth and has problems eating.
Can you take the same motivation to stop out-of-control spending by our government which has allowed the X generation and the millenials to be poorer than their parents? Can you also rally around ending the war? All these issues matter to our future and are equally important. Without modification of this, we will be poorer than our parents. This is our reality!
Sadlty, health insurance reform for all Americans will be nearly impossible so long as we see Health Care as a right, and not a priveledge. Human nature's tendency toward greed and corruption does not allow for us to see how exercising our "right" comes with responsibilities.
It comes down to this basic hypothetical example: Does a 18 or 21 year old girl have the right to get breast implants and collagen lip injections?
I say no, because that 18 or 21 year old is not going to be cognitively aware enough to offset the costs of her luxury augmentation by donating to a real cause for cure or treatment such as MDA or Christopher Reeve foundation
Sadly, this applies to most people, from 18 to 60, until they realize how little progress has been made because valuable money and time has been wasted on Botox and Rogaine and Silicone.
Big news that Speaker Pelosi announced on Tuesday: the final House bill will include a provision to allow young adults to stay on their parents' health insurance through the age of 26. This could help cover 1/3 of all uninsured young people and is a step towards universal coverage.
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