President Barack Obama pulled out all the stops to persuade young Americans to enroll in Obamacare’s health insurance exchanges. But the president is going to have to work a bit harder, with new data finding the percentage of young Americans enrolled is disproportionately low when compared to the percentage who are uninsured.
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When examining data surrounding the number of young Americans enrolled in the Affordable Care Act’s state-run exchanges, the American Action Forum found Millennials’ enrollment is disproportionately low when compared to the percentage of uninsured young people. Such a contrast presents alarming challenges for the Obama administration, with 18- to 35-year-olds’ participation being crucial to Obamacare’s success.
Approximately 40 percent of America’s uninsured population are between the ages of 18 and 35. Consequently, the Obama administration has set a target goal of enrolling 2.7 million within that same age demographic in an effort to keep the cost of premiums down for all in the insurance pool — or 38 percent of the White House’s total target enrollment of 7 million.
However, when examining the percentage of young adults enrolled in the state-run exchanges (for which data is available) to the total percentage of young adults who are uninsured in the state, a disproportionately low number have enrolled, American Action Forum found.
A total of 17 states opted to operate an exchange independent of the federally run marketplace found on healthcare.gov. American Action Forum examined data for six states operating on a state-run exchange: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Kentucky, Maryland and Washington.
In each case, the percentage of the young-adult uninsured greatly outweighs the percentage of young-adult exchange enrollees.
In Connecticut, for example, roughly 45 percent of young adults between the ages of 18 and 35 are uninsured. By contrast, less than 20 percent of those enrolled in the exchange are within the same age range.
Such trends demonstrate the challenges facing both the state- and federally-run exchanges in reaching out to Millennials.
Though the White House released figures surrounding the number of people who have selected insurance plans through healthcare.gov — 106,000 total, well short of the administration’s 500,000-enrollee goal — the Department of Health and Human Services did not release the number of 18- to 35-year olds who have enrolled. Thus far, only a few state-run exchanges have released such figures.
The Obama administration has worked and continues to work diligently in reaching out to young people to explain the benefits of Obamacare. White House officials held a Youth Summit on Wednesday to discuss the president’s signature healthcare law, and President Obama reached out to some of his biggest supporters, asking Hollywood A-listers to shill for the healthcare law.
However, with the percentage of young Americans enrolled looking dismal, Obamacare’s success could be at risk.
Check out American Action Forum’s findings below.
