Young Invincibles

Today, Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) spoke out against one of the Affordable Care Act’s most popular provisions, which allows young adults to stay on their parent’s plan up to age 26. Speaking from the House floor he said “I have four kids under the age of 26. I have raised them to be responsible. The average age of soldiers in Vietnam was 19. World War II probably the same. I have raised my kids to be responsible, to get health care at 21. Kids don't need to be running home to mommy and daddy until they're 26 for healthcare.” The dependent coverage provision is one of the most popular in the health care law, with polls showing as much as 70% of Americans support the provision.

“Jack Kingston and his family have every right to not extend coverage to their children. That’s their choice. But apparently Rep. Kingston thinks his ideas on how to raise children should dictate the health care choices of millions of families and their children. Rep. Kingston should tell the families in Georgia already benefiting from this provision that he knows best when he tries to take coverage away from their kids,” says Aaron Smith, Co-founder and Executive Director of Young Invincibles.

Rep. Kingston may not know that Georgia already had a law extending dependent coverage before the new health care law. The old Georgia state law extended coverage to young adults up to the age of 25, although it was full of restrictions. The law only required a family plan to offer coverage to young adults that were financially dependent and enrolled as full-time students for at least 5 months of the year, or who were eligible to be a full-time student but prevented due to illness or injury. The state law also did not apply to many large employers that were self-insured. The federal law raised the age to 26, removed almost all of these restrictions, and applies to all employers, including self-insurers.

In 2010, 343,000 19-25 year olds were uninsured in Georgia, while the unemployment rate among the same age group in Georgia is a staggering 20%. An estimated 43,500 young Georgians are predicted to benefit from this new federal provision in 2011, at no cost to the federal or state budget, while thousands more will benefit when the exchanges are fully implemented in 2014.

Rep. Kingston’s position is at odds with many other Republicans who have supported dependent coverage. For example, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina recently said “[t]here's some things in there like parents being able to keep their kids on insurance while they're going to school -- that's good stuff."

Young Invincibles has a fact sheet on the impact of the dependent coverage provision in Georgia, among other states. Find it here.

The Department of Health and Human Services announced today that consumer protections for individual plans in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will extend to college health plans. In many cases, these new protections and benefits will mark a significant improvement from existing college health plans, which are often low quality and bad value. Since the passage of reform, Young Invincibles has advocated that college students receive the same protections and benefits as all Americans. These regulations achieve that goal, in a major victory for students and their families.

Key provisions such as free preventive care, no discrimination due to pre-existing conditions in 2014, elimination of limits on lifetime benefit caps and a phaseout of annual benefit caps, and a required medical loss ratio of 80%, will take effect for college plans beginning after January 1, 2012. College health plans, often cited for poor coverage, will mirror the rest of the market in their improved standards.

“As advocates for strong consumer protections for college students, we are very excited that students will finally begin to see better college health plans and much-needed protections from abuses of the insurance industry,” said Jen Mishory, Deputy Director of Young Invincibles. "College health plans are not a new issue- college students have been fighting for better college health plans at their schools for years. These improvements happened because young people spoke up in their communities and in DC to help pass the new health care law, and continued to work during the implementation. Young Invincibles and other youth groups like Campus Progress and PIRG have worked for months to mobilize students to speak up for improved standards in college health plans and to share their stories, and their voices were heard."

In the past, because there was little to no oversight of college health plans, plans varied widely and many were viewed as bad value for young consumers. With medical loss ratios as low as 35 percent and internal benefit caps as low as $1,500, profit margins for college health plans are up to 5 times the industry average.

For Sara, 22, of San Diego State University, this decision means that her college’s insurance plan, previously inadequate for dealing with her Type 1 Diabetes because of low benefit caps that made treatment extremely expensive, could now become a viable option. College health insurance plans will have to phase out these caps, and the annual benefit caps will be eliminated entirely by 2014.

“These regulations are a big win for the millions of students on these plans and their families. We are happy to see that HHS heard the voices of young people, and guaranteed they will finally get the health insurance that all Americans deserve,” said Aaron Smith, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Young Invincibles.

To learn more about Sara and other students that will be impacted by the new regulations, please read “The Faces of College Health Plans."

Update -- A friend correctly points out that the gripes here are with the negotiations in the Senate. The House bill treated young people quite well and on par with seniors. My apologies for failing to distinguish.

Original Post:

If one needed proof that the importance of youth has yet to really penetrate the minds of Democratic leadership on Capitol Hill, look no further than the deal cut on health care. Substantively, I'm one of those heretics who thinks that the public option had been so watered down that its removal doesn't condemn the bill. The insurance regulations -- preventing pre-existing condition discrimination and rescission, for example -- and subsidies plus the longer term efforts at cost containment make the bill a big net win for the country.

But as the public option was stripped out, Democrats saw a need to take care of at least one demographic:

Beyond that, the group agreed--contingent upon CBO analysis--to a Medicare buy in.

That buy-in option would initially be made available to some uninsured people aged 55-64 in 2011, three years before the exchanges open.

In other words, young voters got a public option...for their parents.

The fundamental decisions around this legislation shouldn't simply be about constituencies pursuing their own narrow interests. And, even without a public option, the vast, vast majority of young people will be significantly better off with the passage of this bill than they were without.

But it is disappointing that Democrats would turn their back on a generation that placed so much trust in them. Beyond that, it is politically stupid. Democrats are preparing a narrative that won't work to reach one of their biggest target audiences. Given the heavy overlap between all three of the Rising American Electorate constituencies -- youth, unmarried women, and people of color -- the reality is that Democrats are setting themselves up in a less-than-great way politically.

So the question young people may want to ask themselves is, How can we get Democrats to pay attention to our self-interest? We can't even convince them to care about their own.

The Harvard Institute of Politics has released their latest round of youth polling. The numbers are already being headlined that youth still support Barack Obama even as they disapprove of his policy goals. Nowhere is this dynamic more visible than healthcare. Polling this year has repeatedly shown youth to be among the most favorable constituencies for health reform -- no surprise given how many young Americans are uninsured.

Forward Montana, the young voter organization I helped found in 2004, made health care a priority in 2007 after our members and volunteers told us loudly that the issue was a priority for them.

So what happened? The answer, based on the data, is extremely unclear. Despite disapproving of Barack Obama's efforts on health care (44-52), the reality is that young people overwhelmingly support they components of reform:

• 60% favor requiring individuals have health insurance provided low-income Americans receive assistance to help pay for premiums.
• 57% support a public option to compete with private insurance companies.
• 76% want health insurance companies to be required to extend coverage to Americans with pre-existing conditions.
• 63% favor an employer mandate.
• 59% want to fund the system through a surtax on wealthy Americans.

So where's the objection? Good question. It may be the speed with which Congress has tackled the problem. It may be that Republican misinformation is playing a role (Dick Morris is bragging about successfully turning young people agains health reform after all). It may be something else. Frankly, the data set is too limited to tell.

What do you think?

Photo Credit: Josh Landau/Young Invincibles

FutureMajority is part of the Y.I. Want Change coalition. Congratulations to the Y.I. organizers for a successful event! - Karlo

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Contacts: Rebecca Abou-Chedid (Young Invincibles): media@younginvincibles.org, 202-256-4096
Chrissy Faessen (Rock the Vote): chrissy@rockthevote.com, 202-368-1706

Young Americans continue push for health care reform on Hill, hail inclusion of key provision in House bill

Coalition of over 20 youth organizations announce major policy victory, release health care policy agenda, and spend day lobbying key Senators and Representatives in Washington, DC

Washington, DC – Young Americans from 30 states are on Capitol Hill today to continue the push for comprehensive health care reform. Y.I. Want Change, a national coalition of over 20 youth organizations representing millions of young Americans, organized the lobby day. In addition to bringing young people to the Hill today, the Y.I. Want Change coalition released its policy agenda and announced with Speaker Pelosi and Representatives Van Hollen and Dahlkemper a major policy victory for young people that will be included in the final House bill: a provision allowing young Americans to stay on their parents’ insurance through the age of 26.

“Speaker Pelosi and Representatives Dahlkemper and Van Hollen’s leadership on this key provision – and other important pieces like the public option and strong anti-discrimination language – is a testament to the House’s commitment to provide health care coverage that is affordable, competitive, continuous, comprehensive and fair for young Americans,” said Heather Smith, President of Rock the Vote. “We are going to take the momentum from this day and work with the House and Senate to ensure the remainder of our policy priorities are incorporated into the final legislation.”

“Young people have fought all summer to have our voices heard in this debate, and Congress is listening,” said Erica Williams, Deputy Director of Campus Progress. “The health care crisis is young America’s crisis. Affordability, not invincibility, is the reason young people don’t have health insurance, and we are committed to making quality health care affordable for young Americans.”

In addition to the provision allowing young adults to stay on their parents’ insurance through the age of 26, the Y.I. Want Change coalition is pushing six other policy priorities as part of the Y.I. Care Agenda released today (full details available at www.yiwantchange.org):

o Increasing premium support for low-income Americans and limiting out-of-pocket expenses to ensure that health insurance is affordable;
o Including a public option to provide greater choice for young Americans;
o Ensuring that any “young invincible” plan covers preventative and chronic care and limits out-of-pocket expenses;
o Including funding to provide education and workforce training to young Americans to assist in the transition;
o Ensuring affordable access to health insurance exchanges for all Americans; and
o Ending discrimination in the provision of health insurance.

“Health care reform that is good for young Americans is good for all Americans. That is why these policy priorities must become an integral part of the final legislative package,” said Ari Matusiak, co-founder of Young Invincibles. “The time of leaving people uninsured, unprotected and insecure has passed. The coalition we have convened is the clearest indication yet that health care is an issue all Americans care about. We’re here to tell Washington that it has to act.”

For more information and resources, including a detailed analysis of the Y.I. Want Change policy priorities, please visit www.yiwantchange.org. To speak to coalition spokespeople please contact Rebecca Abou-Chedid at media@younginvincibles.org / 202-256-4096 or Chrissy Faessen at chrissy@rockthevote.com / 202-368-1706.

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Y.I. Want Change is a national coalition of more than 20 youth organizations and their affiliates, including Advocates for Youth, Black Youth Vote, Bus Federation, Campus Camp Wellstone, Campus Progress, Center for Community Change, Choice USA, College Democrats of America, Daily Get Up, Energy Action Coalition, 80 Million Strong, Forward Montana, Future Majority, Generation WE, Generational Alliance, NAACP Youth and College Division, Rock the Vote, Roosevelt Institution, Student PIRGs, Young Democrats of America, Young Invincibles, and Young People First. For additional information please visit www.yiwantchange.org.

Here is a letter sent to Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) on behalf of a coalition of youth activist organizations fighting the good fight on health reform:

September 25, 2009

The Honorable Max Baucus
H-232, US Capitol
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Senator Baucus:

We are writing on behalf of organizations representing young Americans across the country whose lives will be dramatically impacted by health care reform. We applaud many of the aims of America’s Healthy Future Act, particularly efforts to provide universal coverage to all Americans.

However the current legislation falls short on a number of key provisions that must be addressed. We urge you to make health insurance more affordable for young Americans by expanding the income range eligible for subsidies and lowering the caps on the percentage of income individuals might pay for premiums. We urge you to allow young adults to remain on their parents’ insurance policy until the age of 26 so as to reduce gaps in coverage and preserve continuity of care. We also urge you to add a public option to make the new health insurance exchanges more competitive and lower costs for young consumers. We strongly believe that comprehensive, affordable health insurance should be available to all Americans, young and old.

We are aware of the inclusion of a “young invincible” plan in the current legislation that is “effectively a catastrophic with no coverage below the HSA out-of-pocket limit except for preventive benefits and
services.” (Snowe Amendment #F5 accepted into the Chairman’s Mark) While we believe the focus should be on improving subsidies so everyone can afford comprehensive coverage, if the “young invincible” provision must be in the legislation it needs to include certain key provisions:

• The HSA limit is now $3,000 and is far too high a deductible for even healthy young Americans. Common injuries that need treatment could spell financial ruin for young Americans, 80% of whom earn less than $40,000 per year. The allowable deductible should be significantly lowered.
• “Preventive benefits and services” must be defined broadly to include a wide variety of common preventive treatments including regular check-ups, screenings, and gynecological visits.
• The plan must include coverage for chronic conditions that impact those 18-34, such as asthma, diabetes, hypertension, and sinusitis, which would not count against the deductible. Over 15% of young
Americans deal with chronic health care problems. Without access to proper case management, not only do they suffer but it costs the system in the long-run.

Thank you for your leadership on this issue. Young people are counting on you to deliver on the promise of reform and a better future for all Americans.

Sincerely,

18 in ‘08
80 Million Strong
Advocates for Youth
Black Youth Vote
Bus Federation
Campus Progress
Daily Get Up
Forward Montana
Rock the Vote
Student Association for Voter Empowerment
Young Invincibles

While Baucus's track record doesn't give much hope to the letter having much of an effect on the legislative output, there's a bigger fight than what might happen with Baucus's legislation being discussed in the Senate Finance Committee this week. As this Times piece seems to indicate, there's some kind of latent momentum going for the public option outside of the more conservative Finance Committee, thanks to the GOP:

The Senate floor, and certainly a conference with the more liberal House, will be more receptive arenas, Mr. Schumer and others predict. Ultimately, the liberals in Congress, as well as their allies in organized labor, expect to be able to shape the final product more than they had hoped just weeks ago.

That unnerves the more conservative Democrats, many of them from Republican-leaning districts and states.

Liberals have been emboldened by two factors. One is the failure of Senator Max Baucus of Montana, a more conservative Democrat who heads the Finance Committee, to get any Republicans to support his draft legislation, after months of trying. That doomed President Obama’s goal of bipartisan backing for a health care overhaul, and now leaves party liberals arguing for a distinctly Democratic health plan.

“One of the strongest arguments against a public option has been that the Republicans will never go for it,” Mr. Schumer said. “Well, the Baucus bill doesn’t have a public option, and they’re still not for it in any way, with the possible exception of Olympia Snowe,” a moderate Republican senator from Maine, who has not ruled out supporting the overhaul that Mr. Obama is seeking.

The second development that has encouraged liberals is recent polling, including some done for The New York Times and CBS News in the last week, that gives Democrats a clear edge over Republicans as the party favored to deal with health care issues. The same polls show significant support for a public option despite months of criticism from Republicans, who describe it as a government takeover of health insurance.

Should Schumer be successful in staging a larger debate following all committee deliberations when the legislation is on the Senate floor, the stipulations made in the youth coalition letter appear to have a larger chance of being incorporated into the final Senate bill.

The best thing for everyone to do at this point is to bombard your respective senators and make sure they understand why youth want the public option, as well as the other caveats made in the letter above.

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.

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.

I am writing to introduce a new campaign for health care reform: Young Invincibles.

Not too long ago, health care reform seemed like a done deal. People in Washington were talking about wrapping up the issue before recess. The President seemed unstoppable. The Congressional leadership appeared to be in line.

It seems like a lifetime ago now.

From the town hall outbursts to the never-ending coverage of Washington intrigue, the conversation on health care in America has been overwhelmed by the spectacle of reform. The substance of reform - the tens of millions of Americans without insurance or on the verge of losing what little coverage they do have - has been all but forgotten.

We need to change that. And it is our belief that young Americans are the ones to do it. Young Invincibles is a new campaign of 18- to 34-year-olds committed to securing quality, affordable health care for all Americans. We started this campaign because we recognized that our generation was not being engaged in the current health care debate. The generation that fought for the "chance to make change" was not being called on to see its moment through.

But the health care crisis in America is our crisis.

Over half of all Americans ages 18 to 34 are overweight or obese. Fifteen percent suffer from chronic conditions like diabetes, asthma, cancer, hypertension or heart disease. Over thirteen million are uninsured, representing one-third of the total uninsured population in the country. We are less likely to be eligible for an employer sponsored health plan, more likely to change jobs and lose coverage during a life transition, and most at risk of going into crippling, life-altering debt after getting sick or injured while uninsured.

It is time for us to make our voices heard in this debate. Over the coming weeks, Young Invincibles will educate young Americans about the health care crisis, grow our membership, and share the stories of young people who have suffered needlessly and noiselessly at the hands of a system that does not work. And we will mobilize our generation to let Congress know that the time for health care reform is now.

We believe that engaging young Americans in this debate can help push health care reform over the top. And that is what we intend to do. You will be hearing a lot from us before the final votes in Washington are called. It is time for us to be heard from again. Change simply can't wait.

Join us.

Ari A. Matusiak is co-founder of Young Invincibles. He can be reached at ari [dot] matusiak [at] gmail [dot] com.