President Calls on Youth for HCR

The President spoke to the University of Maryland yesterday pitching his health care message and specifically tailoring it to young people. He mentioned the mandate that would require insurance compainies that cover children to do so until they are 26 to ensure that all young people will still be covered even throughout their educations and until they are able to get jobs that ... ideally ... will have plans of their own.

He praised the University which now requires all students to have health care to enroll. This is a new policy that some in the audience booed when it was mentioned. The policy was enacted the University says in efforts to limit a students liability and prevent them from incurring additional personal debt in the event of an emergency - which could keep them from being able to continue their education. Obama echoed this concern and saying that 40% of young people are in debt because of medical bills.

He also repeated the unfortunate mime that young people believe they are "invulnerable" saying its what he thought when he was young, and thus we as a generation don't think we need health care. Again.... this is a common mistake.

Its not that young people don't want health care, its that we graduate with over $23,000 in debt on average and enter into jobs that aren't providing a living wage or any benefits. With individual policies now about as much or more as a semester of college to some, I'm afraid the options are a bit grim. And a family plan is up 5% to about the same as a new car.

Interestingly, Karl Rove commented on the newly release Baucus bill and Obama by saying that the President's approval ratings among youth

"may drop more when those voters discover that the plan put out by Sen. Max Baucus (D., Mont.) this week would fine them up to $950 a year for not being insured. Young people are 9.9% of the population. Fining them only antagonizes them."

At the Netroots Nation panel Getting Ish Done, Christina Hollenback of the Generation Alliance echoed a sentiment I know I share and many of my friends share - that if Congress and the White House doesn't pass a comprehensive health care reform package that provides a public option for young people, they will have done nothing for us.