Tag Archives: Young Healthies
Young Healthies of Our American Family
In times of trouble President Obama is fond of mistaking “We the People” for “Our American Family”.
Makes sense in a sick sort of way. We’ve had Soccer Moms, NASCAR Dads, and now we have “Young Healthies”.
Young Healthies are the underemployed, student loan indentured, basement dwelling scions of our “American Family”. And while they stand to reap an unhealthy inheritance of $17 trillion in debt, their most immediate concern is to support the lifestyles of the “Old and Sick”.
Traditionally this support has been in the form of the employment tax which covers social security and medicare expenses. Ok, it doesn’t exactly cover them – see the $17 trillion debt inheritance. Anyway, a new turn of the screw has been added. The Young Healthies are required by law to buy insurance they don’t need so that their modest wealth can be transferred to the Old and Sick.
Young Healthies and young Our American Family Go Down Together
For some reason the Young Healthies were enthusiastic about this arrangement in the abstract in 2008, but not so much now that it’s real. That’s too bad, because if the Healthies don’t cough up the money they don’t have, Our American Family goes into a “Death Spiral“.
Young Voter Base
The president is punishing his base. Young voters delivered for him in both elections. Their reward is to be asked to subsidize older and sicker voters through ObamaCare. It’s a scheme to spread the wealth from the relatively poor to the relatively affluent.
Can’t say he didn’t give the “young healthies” an important job. If they don’t sign up, ObamaCare could go into a death spiral. Or not.
Carl Schramm in the WSJ cites this Manhattan Institute study:
A Manhattan Institute analysis of Health and Human Services numbers notes that a 27-year-old male will pay 99% higher premiums under ObamaCare than he would under previously prevailing market rates. One reason is that the law now limits insurers to charging the sickest seniors no more than three times the amount they charge their youngest customers. Given that 64-year-olds use on average six times as much health care as 19-year-olds, the Affordable Care Act forces young people to pay considerably more than the cost of their own care.
Young men and women who pay a fine instead of buying coverage are not making an irrational choice. They know how little care they need and use. They also may be beginning to understand that the high cost of their plans reflects the redistribution of their wealth to older people and a bunch of mandated services that don’t make sense for them.
