How health reform might affect 'Young Invincibles'

ProPublica profiles a "young invincible" and reports on what a health care overhaul might mean for him.

"Neil Thurgood, 26, is part of the group dubbed 'Young Invincibles' during the current health care debate. Like many young Americans, he went without health insurance for a few years after college because he couldn't afford it. Now he's left with thousands of dollars of debt that he incurred when he got unexpectedly sick." Health reform would give people like Thurgood "more options for insurance - whether as a dependent on a parent's insurance, Medicaid or as a purchase through an exchange — but one option that will no longer be available is skipping health coverage. For relatively well-off young people, like Thurgood and his wife, health care reform will mean a new health insurance requirement, but not much help affording it" (Shankman and Pierce, 12/22).

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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.