Universal Health Care

Young Invincibles has put together a review of the Baucus health care reform bill in the Senate as it applies to young people. I thought I'd share that with everyone:

The “Young Invincible” Plan
A “young invincible” plan would be offered as an option in the State Health Exchanges for individuals 25 years or younger, offering catastrophic coverage where policy holders would pay up to the current Health Savings Account limit for care ($5,950 for individuals), but exempting prevention benefits from the deductible.

Young Adults Will Be Required To Purchase Insurance
Beginning in 2013, all individuals would be required to purchase health insurance coverage (“individual mandate”).

Fees Will Apply for Those Young Adults Who Fail To Buy Coverage
$750/year/individual in fees for taxpayers whose modified adjusted gross income is between 100% and 300% of the federal poverty line ($10,830 - $32,490 in 2009).
$950/year/individual in fees for taxpayers whose modified adjusted gross income is above 300% of the FPL.

Exemptions Will Allow Some Young Adults To Avoid the Mandate
Individuals are exempt from the mandate if the lowest cost premium available exceeds 10% of their adjusted gross income, or if they are at or below 133% of FPL.

Low-Income Young Adults Will Receive A Tax Credit To Reduce Costs
Starting in 2013, individuals with incomes between 134% and 300% of the FPL (expanding to 100-300% in 2014) would receive a tax credit in order to purchase health insurance from a health exchange, with the credit level set so that premiums for those at 100% of the FPL would cap at 3% of income while those at 300% of the FPL would have premiums capped at 13% of income.

After posting my piece last night on youth and government health reform, I thought more about the attitudes of young people on the issue. The meme out there is that we consider ourselves to be "invincible," therefore we're not engaging in discussion on the issue. Luckily, in true Millennial form, some young people collaborated, started an organization, and fought back against this "invincible" myth.

But if we're not perceiving ourselves to be invincible, what's going on here? Why the minimal "noise" from young people?

First, let's remember that today's young people don't make "noise." Our generation wants to solve problems, not settle ideological scores, whether that's through technology, multi-tasking, collaborating with others, etc. Our change-making skills are generally different from the Boomers currently running our major institutions. While our conservative elders are best-served to confuse voters of all ages in this debate, many of our older Democratic brothers and sisters don't have the stomach to avoid the false clamors for bipartisanship. As a result, Democrats and Republicans who run the debate continue to yell at each other, while millions of Americans - including too many young people - gamble their already-precarious life savings on not getting hurt or sick. So whether young people are attempting to make change or not, the "chorus of cynics," and in this case, cowards, distracts from anything we would be doing anyway.

Given the sway that lobbyists and special interests still have within Congress and other halls of government, young people unfortunately can't yet enact their brand of change in every institution. In 2008, this was overcome by advocating and voting for a candidate who displayed a mastery of the peer-to-peer tactics, and the pragmatic and "no drama" approach that Millennials embrace. Millennials saw this approach on many issues the first part of this year as well, particularly on pieces of legislation like Serve America, the large expansion in national service through the federal government. But now that the most important issue has appeared in front of us as a nation, young people are missing that refreshing call for collaborative, pragmatic problem-solving. Instead, talking points and yelling abounds. To paraphrase from today's op-ed piece in the Post, "We have the hope. Where's the audacity," Mr. President?

Eight months into the Obama administration, as we mourn the senator from Massachusetts, many of us retain the hope, but we are wondering what happened to the audacity that is needed to move the country in a new direction. In recent weeks, many progressives have expressed concern that Obama's bold plan to reform health care may be at risk. A defeat on this key issue could undermine other elements of his agenda. We don't believe that the president has changed his goals, but we wonder whether he underestimated the power necessary to bring about real change.

If we're going to be successful in getting this done, we need the chief facilitator of the "millions of voices calling for change" to return to his role.

An LA Times article, also published today, discusses the widespread support among young people for government-led health reform. It contained the statistics that are more startling and worrisome every time I read them:

Young people account for 30% of the uninsured population, according to a report by the Commonwealth Fund, a health policy research foundation. They are least likely to be offered health insurance through employment benefits -- just 53% of working young adults are eligible for employer-based coverage. And since their incomes tend to be low, buying coverage on their own is usually too expensive.

The problem is still there, and getting worse with each day. Contrary to the conventional wisdom spread by AP writers, the youth of the nation don't feel invincible. Try disgusted. In the midst of a cacophony that, at best, lacks courage, and, at worst, is hate-filled, we simply want to see some semblance of the problem-solving politics for which we voted.

I wanted to post this as a follow-up to Sarah's post earlier this morning, as President Obama's weekly video address hits many of the same themes that former minority leader Tom Daschle discussed at 80 Million Strong.

Right now, it seems that this is the cause of our generation. Thankfully, President Obama seems to understand this.

You know, sometimes I really have to wonder if the right-wing Republican propagandists over at Fox news take themselves seriously, because I have to believe that every time the cameras turn off the "reporters" let loose a devious "Bwaa-Haa-Haa". Check out Fox News' reaction to Sicko, and the way that they use the latest (and completely inept) terror attacks in London as a means to scare Americans away from supporting Universal Health Care

Here's the Paul Krugman article mentioned in the video: Health Care Terror.

These days terrorism is the first refuge of scoundrels. So when British authorities announced that a ring of Muslim doctors working for the National Health Service was behind the recent failed bomb plot, we should have known what was coming.

"National healthcare: Breeding ground for terror?" read the on-screen headline, as the Fox News host Neil Cavuto and the commentator Jerry Bowyer solemnly discussed how universal health care promotes terrorism.

While this was crass even by the standards of Bush-era political discourse, Fox was following in a long tradition. For more than 60 years, the medical-industrial complex and its political allies have used scare tactics to prevent America from following its conscience and making access to health care a right for all its citizens.

...

What outrages people who see "Sicko" is the sheer cruelty and injustice of the American health care system - sick people who can't pay their hospital bills literally dumped on the sidewalk, a child who dies because an emergency room that isn't a participant in her mother's health plan won't treat her, hard-working Americans driven into humiliating poverty by medical bills.

"Sicko" is a powerful call to action - but don't count the defenders of the status quo out. History shows that they're very good at fending off reform by finding new ways to scare us.

These scare tactics have often included over-the-top claims about the dangers of government insurance. "Sicko" plays part of a recording Ronald Reagan once made for the American Medical Association, warning that a proposed program of health insurance for the elderly - the program now known as Medicare - would lead to totalitarianism.