Insuring "Young Invincibles" Critical to Health Care Reform

Published: Tue 01 Dec 2009

Perry Begay

The health insurance industry refers to them as the "young invincibles." They are the 13.7 million people under 30 in the United States who do not have medical insurance because they are convinced that they do not need it. After all, why would they squander money on something they are far too healthy to use ever?

In the health care reform debate, legislators and health insurance industry experts concur that convincing this demographic of healthy young people to join the insurance pool would reduce costs for the population as a whole. For young people to take the plunge into the pool, however, youth advocates and health insurance industry reps argue that Congress needs to concentrate on affordability instead of invincibility.

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, young American adults have higher likelihoods of working low-paying, entry-level jobs without health insurance benefits. Consequently, Americans between the ages of 19 and 29 have the top uninsured rate in the U.S.

"Do I really want to pay $200 a month so I can get antibiotics whenever I catch a cold?" questioned Will Mohring, a 30-year-old Washington restaurant manager making roughly $45,000 a year.

Mr. Mohring has not had health insurance for almost a year. He based his decision to forgo health insurance on confidence in his healthy genes and crippling $400-per-month payments on student loans.

"I don't think not having health insurance is a good thing," he added. "I think if it was affordable, and that's the key, if it was affordable I would definitely have it."

Health insurance industry analysts say it's critical to pull more young people like Mohring into the insurance system because they are statistically healthy and do not require expensive medical care. The premiums they pay would then help subsidize the cost of insuring older, unhealthy people in the insurance system, thereby lowering the average cost of a policy.

This effect is one of the reasons behind Congress' health care reform bill's requirement that all Americans purchase health insurance or pay a fine.

The bill is essentially designed as a tax on young Americans in order to reduce the costs for others, explained Martin Feldstein, a conservative economist and the former chief economic adviser to President Ronald Reagan.

Some young adults, including Aaron Smith, the 27-year-old co-founder of the Young Invincibles youth advocacy group, exhort their peers to look at the long-term big picture of health care.

"I think young people can accept the idea that it's okay for us to pay a little more now to, you know, make sure that the system works well in the long term," Smith stated. "There will come a time when we are older, and we are sicker, and then the system will take care of us."

That idea doesn't appeal to 24-year-old Leone Edwards, a Maryland jewelry maker and part-time security guard who recently lost her employer-provided medical benefits.

"I think that would worry me is me paying for someone else's health care," Edwards commented. "That would be (my) biggest issue."