What's the solution to Obamacare's young person problem?

[TexasTowelie]

In the past week and a half we’ve gotten about a dozen submissions about the “young person problem” and the Affordable Care Act.

In order for the ACA to succeed, the government and insurers are going to have to find a way to get healthy 18- to 35-year-olds to sign up in large numbers. In fact, Allan Einboden, CEO of Temple-based Scott & White Health Plan {Texas}, laid out the challenge to insurers in a commentary on CNBC.com this week. Einboden writes:

"Regrettably, the many issues with the launch of the federally-facilitated exchange turned the hope of engagement into a complete turn off, especially for young people who are more demanding of a great experience. Only 118,000 individuals have enrolled in Texas and 66 percent of those individuals are over the age of 35. This has set up a negative risk situation.

It is time to collaboratively develop a strategy to engage young, healthy people. We need to use the best young minds who understand social media and networking to develop innovative ways to connect."

Good luck with that.

I spent the last two years working on a university campus with more than 50,000 undergraduate and graduate students. While most of my job entailed working with the media and university administrators, a fair portion of my job involved trying to communicate to students. It’s not a job for the meek, or those who think that a website and an email is going to get the job done.

More at http://www.statesman.com/weblogs/viewpoints/2014/jan/24/search-solutions-obamacares-young-person-problem/ .

[JeffHead]

1. Single Payer

Everyone in and nobody out.

[FreeJoe]

10. +1

[mainer]

2. The problem isn't ACA; the problem is these young "immortals"

This is the same age group that does a whole host of foolish things and never think they'll get hurt.

[dilby]

3. Well kids can stay on their parents insurance till 26.

And it doesn't really matter because people in that 18-30 age bracket are not exactly top income earners, most can barely afford rent and food after college so I think they will be getting heavily subsidized insurance based on their limited income.

[Bennyboy]

4. I know so many people who are not signing up

So many. I tell em, it take five minutes and won't cost you anything but they just don't believe it. Mostly the 30 somethings but a lot of independent men as well who fear the Gov't....

[AngryAmish]

5. We need to punish them.

We hired a bunch if IRS agents. Get them after them.

[Xithras]

9. Yes, because punishing one of your core constituencies is such a great way to win elections.

This is a problem that many predicted from Day 1. By embracing and institutionalizing the private corporate "shared risk" model for health insurance, and then not providing enough money to subsidize EVERYONE, they essentially made the entire thing dependent on middle class young people between the ages of 26 and 35 who make enough money to qualify without subsidies.

Private insurance is based on the idea that many people have to pay more money in premiums than they actually use in medical care, so that the excess can be spent on other people who use more than they pay for. Because the ACA depends so heavily on that narrow group of people, you're essentially telling them "You must buy insurance and waste money that we know you won't use, because it helps other people." Clearly, that message isn't working. Adding an "or we'll sic the IRS on you" to the end of the sentence won't help anything.

[pnwmom]

6. There isn't a problem so far. No one expected that the numbers for December

would be like the numbers for March because young people were expected to wait till close to the last minute. But even if the numbers are the same in March, there would only be a 2 or 3 percent difference in the cost. And even if that happens, we have built into the law a mechanism for making payments to companies that get too few young people.

[NightWatcher]

7. tshirts and pizza. teens and twenty somethings will do anything for a free tshirt and pizza

[TexasTowelie]

12. You forgot the beer!

[jrandom421]

8. Simple

Let them pay ALL the medical bills from their next accident or disease diagnosis, and deny them any chance of declaring bankruptcy.

Oh wait, that's already in place.

[BKH70041]

11. An Adverse Selection Problem Does Indeed Seem To Be Materializing

The reason the age distribution is important is that younger people tend to be healthier, meaning that they consume less medical services and are cheaper to insure. But some young people are sick too, and if they are the ones buying ObamaCare policies, that aggravates selection despite their tender years. But while this problem can be identified and anticipated, there is no way to estimate its magnitude. Insurance companies no longer ask about pre-existing conditions.

IOW, watch out.

[ProSense]

13. This

In order for the ACA to succeed, the government and insurers are going to have to find a way to get healthy 18- to 35-year-olds to sign up in large numbers. In fact, Allan Einboden, CEO of Temple-based Scott & White Health Plan {Texas}, laid out the challenge to insurers in a commentary on CNBC.com this week.

...is a RW distortion to create the impression that enrollment needs to skew to young people or the law will fail. It's fairly silly on the face of it. First of all, millions of young are eligible to stay on their parents' plan. Secondly, about 25 percent of the current enrollees are young people.

Dean Baker

The Washington Post Still Can't Get It Right, Health Exchanges Need Healthy People, It Doesn't Matter If They Are Young
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/the-washington-post-still-cant-get-it-right-health-exchanges-need-healthy-people-it-doesnt-matter-if-they-are-young

Given that the health care law was designed to cover everyone, and millions were unable to get insurance because of pre-existing conditions (think even of the junk policies that dropped people when they got sick), the notion that the laws' success depends on a higher percentage of young healthy people than any other segment is absurd. Republicans and the media will keep pushing this meme while they work to sabotage the real cost control mechanisms.

Republicans Seek To Sabotage Obamacare With Higher Premiums

Conservative wonks and Republican lawmakers are coalescing around a new strategy to sabotage Obamacare by repealing a temporary piece of the law designed to hold down premiums in the event of major market disruptions.

The provision -- called "risk corridors," but dubbed the "Obamacare bailout" by the law's opponents -- seeks to stabilize costs by creating a pot of money that takes in funds from insurers who enroll healthier customers and uses it to pay out insurers who enroll sicker customers. It's a safety valve that sunsets after 2016. The repeal push is clever messaging in a sense because it lets conservatives snatch the mantle of populism from liberals against wealthy insurance companies. But it comes with its share of dangers, too.

Last November, as TPM reported, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) introduced legislation to repeal this provision. Since then it has picked up 13 Republican co-sponsors, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and two companion bills in the House, which are supported by numerous Republicans. The idea has been championed by conservative lobbying groups like the Club For Growth and Heritage Action, and pushed by writers including Charles Krauthammer in the Washington Post, Ramesh Punnuru in Bloomberg View and Deroy Murdock in National Review.

The conservatives are open about the end goal: collapse Obamacare by causing higher premiums on the law's marketplaces for the newly insured, which progressive experts who support Obamacare agree would occur.

- more -

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/obamacare-bailout-risk-corridors-conservatives-sabotage

[ProSense]

14. Another reason the meme makes no sense

Obama Admin: Half Of Young Americans Could Buy Insurance For $50 Or Less
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023939187

[underthematrix]

15. TIME