Young people speak out regarding efforts to overhaul the health care system

"As the health care debate winds its way through Congress, everyone can agree on at least this much: Bringing more young adults into the health care system would balance out the costs for everyone else because the young use the least amount of care," The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports. But after that, the discussion becomes complicated, involving questions such as whether young people should be required to to buy insurance or whether they should be allowed to stay on their parents' insurance plans into their mid-20s? "These questions are prompting a particular group of voices to be heard as never before - young people themselves. And the stakes for them couldn't be higher"

A third of young Americans from age 19-29 are uninsured, though they may be required to buy insurance if a health overhaul bill passes with a mandate that everyone carry insurance. Many experts agree that including the young in the pool of the insured is key to driving down costs system wide. In short, younger, relatively healthy young people would pay into a system where the majority of sick people are older than they and it has the young play a new, key role in the debate.

"Supporters of reform plans say young Americans will be among the biggest beneficiaries of changes that promise to bring more affordable health insurance options to the individual market. Health care is of particular interest to college students who worry about their post-graduation job prospects - and their ability to get employer-sponsored health care - in this troubled economy, supporters say." But some remain skeptical of paying into a system they don't use (Marrero, 10/27).

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This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.