How Health Care Reform Could Affect America’s Youth
Posted on February 4th, 2010
The debate over health care reform continues to roil the nation, even though the recent election of Republican Senator Scott Brown has put passage of the legislation in doubt. Currently, the Senate version of the bill is idling in the House of Representatives, where Democrats are trying to decide on how best to proceed. If they pass the Senate bill as-is, with none of the revisions they wanted, it will go to directly to President Obama who will sign it into law. That scenario is far from certain, however, and what the final bill will look like remains to be seen.
Nonetheless, the essence of the bill seeks to fix America’s health care system – which costs much, much more than in other industrialized nations. The result could leave millions uninsured and affect Americans of all ages.
Read on for some highlights of health care reform’s potential impact on America’s youngest citizens in particular.
Children’s Health Care
Currently, the majority of American children – 56% – have health insurance that they get from their parents’ employer-sponsored plans. They would see some significant changes under health care reform.
One big new opportunity would allow them to stay covered by their parents’ plans up to the age of 26. Most plans that cover dependents drop them between 19 and 21 years of age.
Another 28% of American children get their coverage from public means (typically either Medicaid or Children’s Health Insurance Program – CHIP). They would continue to do so, but have more options. Currently, doctors and other medical providers who treat children covered by Medicaid are reimbursed at 72% of Medicare rates. The result is that few doctors can afford to take on many Medicaid patients, which in turn means those patients have fewer options and decreased access to quality care. Under the current bill, that would change as doctors receive Medicaid reimbursements at 100% of Medicare rates.
Of America’s remaining children, some 12% are uninsured, and 4% are covered by individual insurance. If health care reform passes, all uninsured children would be covered, either by enrolling in Medicaid or enrolling in CHIP.
Affecting all children, whether they receive health insurance from their parents’ work, the government, or privately, would be new laws that mandate they have access to dental, vision, and hearing-related needs services from their health insurance plans.
Accessibility would also be expanded under the current health care reform bill. According to the government, approximately 22 million children – both insured and uninsured – lack access to pediatricians and pediatric services due to local underemployment in those sectors. Under the health care reform bill, investments will be made in schools in order to provide better on-site care.
Young Adult Health Insurance
One demographic group that’s going to be impacted by the health care reform bill is young adults, generally defined as over 19 and under 30. According to a 2008 study conducted by the Urban Group, 10 million people between the ages of 19 and 26 don’t have health insurance.
Under the current legislation, everyone is going to be required to have health insurance – including these (typically healthy) young adults. If health care reform passes, a group that normally puts off thinking about health insurance will suddenly be forced to change their traditional attitude and find a plan that’s right for them.
Detractors of Congress’ health care reform plans claim that it creates too much government involvement and could lead to “millions of people losing their insurance,” as well as cost hundreds of billions of dollars in new taxes. Many people are also opposed to the idea of mandated insurance. The impact on children would be felt in terms of their parents losing insurance, being saddled with massive amounts of federal debt, and a loss of liberty. However, the debate may be moot now given the change in Congress’ political calculus. Only time will tell how health care reform affects America’s youth, if at all.
What do you think of the health care reform bill and how it affects younger Americans?
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