It’s second semester senior year and I’m starting to feel the pang of a mild panic attack every time someone asks me, “What do you plan on doing after you graduate?” What scares me even more than the fact that I’m honestly not really sure what I want to do after I graduate, is the fact that for the past 21 years I’ve always felt secure knowing that I can count on Dad’s health insurance plan to protect me if I’m ever sick or injured.
That which has been a steady constant in my life, come May, will no longer be there to take care of me. So on top of figuring out what I’m doing with the rest of my life, I need to make plans that will provide me with health insurance.
Responding to the many young people like myself who are or will soon be without health insurance, New York Governor David A. Patterson will propose that private employers be required to offer health insurance for workers’ dependents ages 19 to 29.
According to The New York Times, if passed this would expand healthcare coverage to 800,000 uninsured New Yorkers, 19-29. It would provide 31 percent of New York’s uninsured, most of whom fall within this age bracket, to remain on their parents’ insurance until they are able to find a job that offers healthcare benefits.
“I pay $60 a month for an insurance plan with no dental, no eye care, and no co-pay,” said ’08 graduate Tyler Mobley, who currently works two jobs, neither of which pays for his healthcare. “My healthcare doesn’t even kick in unless my medical costs are above $2,700. Even then my insurance will only cover 80 percent.”
People come to the US from other countries because the level of healthcare here is state-of-the-art-if they have the means to afford it. In a country with the best medical technology, hospitals, and physicians in the world, 46.6 million had no health insurance in 2005.
Many young adults go without health insurance due to cost and their relative good health. However, this group of uninsured also goes without primary care, creating the risk that developing health problems will go undetected.
The U.S. has become motivated by the interests of the insurance companies rather than the people; maybe it’s time that we consider taking a hint from our democratic socialist neighbors and begin moving towards universal healthcare. Gov. Patterson’s proposal would certainly be a step in the right direction.
“It’s in that time, between 19 and 29, when young people begin to stabilize themselves financially,” said Mobley. “So you either pay too much for a really crappy plan or pay nothing and break your leg and find yourself in debt for the rest of your life.”
I’m sure there are many out there who are in the same boat as me: about to graduate from college and wondering where to go next. But in a country where for many preventive healthcare is not an option and people are unable to go to the doctor until it’s too late, America could learn a lesson from ambitious New York and begin expanding our healthcare opportunities on a national level.