Some groups like Young Invincibles are marketing healthcare to young adults as a good investment, while data and public opinion say otherwise.
During a webinar from the Center for Law and Social Policy on Wednesday, Amy Lin, deputy policy and organizing director for Young Invincibles, encouraged students to buy insurance, saying that “getting coverage will save you money and help ensure financial security later.”
However, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, about one in four Americans ages 18 to 30 say they “don’t really need” health insurance and about 35 percent say it’s not worth the money.
During last year’s Supreme Court debate on Obamacare, Justice Samuel Alito pointed out that healthy adults today spend an average of $854 a year on healthcare. Obamacare, however, requires them to buy insurance policies expected to cost roughly $5,800.
And the law isn’t just asking them to pay for “the services that they are going to consume,” Alito said. “The mandate is forcing these people to provide a huge subsidy to the insurance companies … to subsidize services that will be received by somebody else.”
At this stage in the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, states are beginning outreach efforts to sign uninsured Americans up for the healthcare before 2014 with the help of groups like Young Invincibles. But despite their efforts, only one in five — 22 percent — say they’ve heard “some” about the health insurance exchanges, according to the Kaiser survey.
The exchanges, called “marketplaces,” begin Oct. 1, 2013. These marketplaces are online portals that consumers will use to apply for health insurance plans.
During the webinar, Christina Postolowski, a legal fellow at Young Invincibles, discussed the benefits of the marketplaces, including the ability to compare coverage side-by-side and the fact that customers cannot be denied coverage or charged more for pre-existing conditions.
The uninsured and those with pre-existing conditions are seen as those most likely to benefit from the law, and almost half of those surveyed say that these groups will be better off under the Affordable Care Act, Kaiser reported. But when it comes to everyone else, unfavorable views of Obamacare continue to outnumber those to the contrary, and many believe they won’t see much of a difference at all.
Mandated coverage begins on Jan. 1, 2014, and individuals who don’t have coverage will pay a $95 penalty. Penalties will gradually increase, too, according to Young Invincibles. In 2016, the penalty will be almost $700 or a percentage of income — whichever is higher, Postolowski said.
But with many young Americans worried about the cost of healthcare, more Millennials will opt out of the insurance as the cost of their premiums go up. According to the American Action Forum, if premiums rise by 30 percent, only 55 percent of young people will continue to buy Obamacare.
And, according to the American Enterprise Institute, premiums for Millennials are expected to rise by as much as 189 percent.
