80MS and Young Invincibles on HCR

Many youth groups are demonstrating their great concern for HCR. Here's more: 80 Million Strong and Young Invincibles announce their partnership.

WASHINGTON 80 Million Strong, a coalition with more than 25 leading national youth organizations committed to creating new jobs and economic opportunity, and Young Invincibles, a nationwide engagement and mobilization effort aimed at involving 18 to 34 year-olds in the health reform debate, have come together to share the stories of young Americans struggling without adequate health insurance coverage.

46 stories are highlighted as part of the effort, one for every one million Americans who are uninsured.

“We know that bringing about meaningful change in our health care system requires us to confront the real stories of physical struggle and financial and emotional hardship faced by so many Americans,” said Ari Matusiak co-founder of Young Invincibles. “In advance of the President’s address to Congress, we are sharing the stories of young people who have suffered needlessly because they are uninsured, or who worry daily about losing the coverage they do have.”

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, of the 46 million Americans without adequate coverage, young Americans ages 19 to 24 represent the highest percentage of uninsured individuals. In 2007, thirty percent of them did not have health insurance and an additional 26 percent of those ages 25 to 34 were also uninsured. Experts speculate that both of these numbers have almost certainly risen due to current economic conditions including high jobless numbers for young people.

“The state of the economy has disproportionately burdened young people – we are experiencing the highest rates of unemployment for young Americans ever. This reality, combined with already high rates of uninsurance in young adults, makes the need for a change in our health care system more important for our generation than for any other age group,” said Maya Enista CEO of Mobilize.org and co-chair of the 80 Million Strong coalition.

“We believe that a public option will not only provide access for 46 million uninsured citizens but will also spur entrepreneurship,” said Matthew Segal, the executive director of the Student Association for Voter Empowerment (SAVE) and a national co-chair of 80 Million Strong. “If young Americans do not have to depend as heavily on their employers for health coverage, they will be more inclined to start or test their own small business ventures, which in turn will create new market value and more jobs. Currently, less than 3 percent of Americans under 25 are self-employed but nearly 60 percent would prefer to be self-employed. We think this statistic is pretty telling in what health insurance reform would do to encourage free enterprise.”

Many of the stories that follow were posted on www.younginvincibles.org. They were uploaded and shared voluntarily as young people joined the online effort to mobilize in support of health reform. Membership to the site has more than doubled in the two weeks since its launch. 80 Million Strong and Young Invincibles encourage young Americans to continue to share their stories in an effort to encourage passage of comprehensive health reform.