Can Young Workers Get Health Care?

Here's a Catch-22 for you - younger workers tend to lower overall health insurance costs because they are generally healthier and use less in the way of benefits than they pay in to the system via premiums. It's the oldsters like me that are a drain. So you would think insurers would want to load up on the young-ens, actuarially speaking, to help shore up that profit canopy.

A recent report sanctioned by the AFL-CIO demonstrates that not only are insurers not adding twenty-somethings to their roles, but the number of young working people covered by insurance is dropping like a stone.

Young Workers: A Lost Decade provide a glimpse into a startling fact:

31 percent of young workers report being uninsured, up from 24 percent 10 years ago, and 79 percent of the uninsured say they don’t have coverage because they can’t afford it or their employer does not offer it.

The survey is a stunning expose of the economic situation faced by young workers today. As a parent of a daughter who just graduated from college this past June, I'm well aware of the pressure she faces by being underemployed and without health insurance coverage for the first time since the blinding lights of the delivery room hit her in the face. She cried then, too.

More and more young workers are unable to pay their bills, have taken to living with their parents, and have put off further educational development due to the cost. This can't possibly be good for the future of America.

Is it simply the profit-sucking vermin at the top of the corporate ladder skimming off a larger share, leaving less to spread around to workers, especially those new to the workforce? Could it be that younger workers grew up in a period of affluence and consumerism that has now proven to be unsustainable, and they therefore need to recalibrate their expectations and begin the tough journey many of us have faced - living within our means?

It's conceivable that my adult children could be the first generation in 100 years that doesn't outperform their parents economically, a frightening thought indeed. Let's hope that these factors and more cause young people to get engaged in the governing process and begin to vote as a larger percentage of the eligible electorate.

Is joining a union the way to go? I'm not so sure - there's some systemic change needed to unionization in this country to avoid financial collapses like we've seen in the automotive industry. Unions can certainly be part of the solution, along with sensible regulation, responsible management, and better financial acumen on behalf of younger workers.

But these items are not separate and distinct from each other. They are seamlessly linked, and the failure of any segment to keep their agreement puts significant pressure on the others, pressure that can deflate many balloons, as we've seen.