What do you trust, when it comes to your vote, your lives and where you consider yourself in your generation’s food chain, the dinner or the diner?
It’s a generational question that Millennials now have their turn to answer. What is different is their access to “faux” reporting that seems directed at actually manipulating rather than informing.
I worry when I hear millennials using faux reports to come up with conclusions that don’t make sense for them in creating their strongest lives, both physically and financially.
Please note that ALL insurance works the same way, if you don't have an accident, if your house doesn't flood or burn down, if you don't get sick then the money you spent on insurance coverage was WASTED, you got nothing for it. It's only when something goes wrong that ANYONE gets their money's worth out of insurance.
That said, here are two persistent reports that I’m seeing young people use as an excuse for poor decision-making in terms of their financial and physical health.
First, the facts. On December 4, 2013, “USA Today,” headline, “Harvard poll: 57% of Millennials Disapprove of Obamacare.” Even more informative, as reprinted in “Yahoo! News,” in an article entitled, “Millennials Abandon Obama and Obamacare,” Ron Fournier on December 5, 2013 reports, “A majority of Americans, under the age of 25—the youngest millennials—would favor throwing Obama out of office.”
Also stated in the newspaper reporting, such as that covered by the “Washington Post,” and the, “Times,” is that based on “poll results,” “The Harvard institute found that only 29 percent of uninsured people ages 18 to 29 will ‘definitely,’ or ‘probably’ enroll in exchanges under Obamacare.”
Why report on that? While it may simply be that the poll is warning that some young and presumably healthy Americans aren’t buying into Obamacare, what I’m hearing from millennials is that they don’t plan on using doctors, or their parents are carrying them on their insurance (if they’re under 26) or that they don’t have jobs so that they don’t care about health insurance. WHAT?
For those who are misusing the “poll” results about 30 percent or so considering not getting Obamacare, intending to use this statistic as an excuse not to get health insurance you’re making a mistake, because you live in the US and if you get sick you need health insurance to help pay the costs of medical treatment—No matter who you are. That’s our system. The real challenge is whether you’re up to getting the best insurance you can based on your current situation.
Insurance is annoyingly complex, but I tried to outline some steps you should take if you’re a young person in my post of July 23, 2013, “Obamacare: ‘I do not thing much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday’ (Abraham Lincoln)” which you can find at: http://conoutofconsumer.blogspot.com/2013/07/obamacare-i-do-not-think-much-of-man.html (copy and paste or search by title in this blog. Skip down to, “So that leaves the option for young people to learn, and read on.
Here I’ll try again, to outline some simple steps. Note, do NOT use any statistic as an “Everyone is doing it,” or in this case “Two-thirds of everyone is doing it,” approach. What’s the point? Yeah, the law is skewed against young people, but it’s what we’ve got to work with.
Here’s a tip, take a look at your parents’ insurance if they don’t qualify for the Free-bates under Obamacare, likely it’s gone up to enormous amounts and likely they’ve spent at least more than a few hours sorting through and trying to make the best selection for your family’s needs. You should be at least doing the same as a grown up.
In a nutshell, millennials should work within the system we have with an eye towards what they will need for their futures. No distractions. Did Obamacare screw them? It surely did, but they’re certainly not the only ones. But that’s not the issue, the issue is to have health insurance to help maintain your financial health and maintain your physical health for this year and moving forward.
If you’re still hoping to use the Harvard “poll” to say that by opting out of doing the work of finding the best insurance you can for the upcoming year, but that’s OK because you’re no different from two-thirds of your peers, that’s wrong. It’s a poll, an estimate, and it doesn’t indicate your peers with very rich parents who never have to worry about money, your peers who are lucky enough to have employer-sponsored health insurance, or your peers on Medicaid. Actually, it’s a “sample” no more meaningful than the people sampled.
Sure, there are always going to be people worse off, but if you’re shooting low, you’re likelier to be one of those people than if you work hard. More significantly though, why would you be looking to the trends of non-success rather than success? Opting out is always an option, but WHY?
If you’re up to the challenge, consider the following:
1- Use the system we’ve got: If that means working two part-time jobs, if you can get them so that you meet income thresholds to use the state or Federal exchange and qualify for rebates and credits, do it.
If your salary from one part-time job is enough to get you participating on the exchange, do it.
Yes, there’s paperwork involved. Yes, there’s frustration involved. If you’re looking for someone else to do it for you, or you’re using the “poll” as an excuse not to look into health insurance, again, ask yourself WHY?
2- If you don’t want to be bothered going through the exchange even if you are eligible for rebates, (which you should because you can call as many times as you want, engage in live chat and figure out a lot of other ways to get it done and pay less for premiums, this is a current opportunity for you,) you can still call an insurance agent and ask for what plans are available to you.
Unlike the exchanges, insurance agents can give you advice on “better,” or “worse,” plans, enroll you and give you personal attention and arrange for your premiums to be paid out of your bank account. You STILL have to carry your card, understand who to call if you need medical care, and keep track of your bills, but ENROLLMENT is likely easier.
3-If you want your parents to carry you on their insurance and you’re under 26, be clear, it is your parents, not Obamacare to whom you owe thanks. Be clear, it is your parents, not you taking responsibility for your health insurance.
At the very least you OWE IT to your parents to understand how the insurance works so that you don’t waste money under the health insurance they provide to you. This includes learning about participating providers, about diagnostic versus preventive services, about co-insurance payments. Show them your maturity and gratitude by sitting down and learning about health insurance while you’re pocketing your card.
Obamacare made it an OPTION for parents to pay to have their kids on their plans until the age of 26. If the option is picked up your parents are giving that to you. If they pay for a policy from an insurance agent for you, whether you’re under or over 26, which they could ALWAYS DO, even before Obamacare, and some did and do, then this is still the same gift and the same people are owed thanks, your parents, not Obamacare.
4- Be responsible. Maintain your health. Take advantage of the coverage you have to get checkups that are covered, and learn to navigate through calling your insurance company and your providers to verify the coverage.
Make it a learning experience so that you can get the best value for yourself out of your coverage when you are fully responsible for obtaining your own health insurance. Remember, if the doctor tries to get you to have other tests, those will not be 100 percent covered because only PREVENTIVE not DIAGNOSTIC is covered.
Also, if you have dental, use it! Not using dental insurance is folly since it is an additional cost that you’ll have to cover once you are paying for your health insurance.
5-If you get Obamacare coverage through an exchange where the Treasury Department is paying part of your premium directly to your insurer, be responsible and pay what you are responsible for or else your coverage will terminate after three months.
If your income goes up during the year, make sure you consider that you may owe the government a refund of some of the money it paid out for your premiums.
6-If you’re currently unemployed, see if you are eligible for Medicaid in your state. If you are ineligible, find out where community healthcare centers are that work on a sliding scale or where free clinics are.
DO NOT ASSUME that because you don’t have money now that you’ll never have money so that you can accumulate as many bills as you want because they won’t be able to get the money back from you (because you don’t have any). Likely you’ll at the very least damage your credit score. So making financially wise decisions even if you have “nothing,” is VERY important.
7- If you decide to go back to school, consider the cost of tuition and the cost of obtaining health insurance through your school. Make sure that if you get a school health policy that it covers you in between semesters. There are usually short term policies you can purchase to cover these lapses for a couple of hundred dollars.
School health insurance is usually not great health insurance, but it’s you being a grown up, so purchase it if it is your best financial choice.
8-Keep track of your medical costs. If your costs, including the cost of premiums exceeds 10 percent of your income, you can take that money as a medical deduction in most cases. It’s also important in being your best grown-up self to know how much you spend and on what when it comes to your “typical” medical expenses.
Be careful with what statistics and news stories you’re opting into, whether it’s the amount of debt young people carry or how they’re opting out of health insurance. There’s always someone doing worse, but if you CHOOSE to do worse, it’s time for serious self-evaluation.
If your parents paid for your college but you figure you can accumulate tens of thousands in debt like lots of other young people, ask yourself WHY you’re telling yourself that story? Sure you can accumulate debt, but you’re also disrespecting what you’ve been given and opting for easy rather than expecting more from yourself. If you’re listening to the headlines above figuring you’ll opt out of health insurance, again ask yourself why you’re taking the easy way out?
Sometimes, people are used as tools to further an agenda, and sometimes, other people are glad to give you an excuse to get out of the game so that their odds are better of winning. Obamacare has become one of those agenda items that has talking heads and politicians using young people for both.
