photo: Ayesha Walker - Youth Radio/ BY-NC-SA

By Emily Beaver

After volunteering for Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, Georgetown University law student Aaron Smith started watching the health care reform debate unfold. Smith, who is 27,  knew many young people who had problems getting health care, but he didn't see their perspectives being represented in the health care debate.

To address this inadequacy, Smith and five other young people who volunteered for the Obama campaign started the Young Invincibles. The group describes themselves as 18 to 34-year-olds committed to making sure young people are heard in the debate about health care reform. They want to talk candidly about how the current health care system fails young people and dispel the notion that young people don’t care about health care.

Youth Radio recently interviewed Smith to find out more:

Q: Why is health care reform an important issue for young people?

A: There are more uninsured young people than any other age group. No group is all the same--some older people don't have insurance. But generally, young people don’t have insurance because of the lack of access to affordable insurance.

Putting aside the issue of whether young people have health insurance, we have a lot at stake in the future of the country. The increase in health care costs is out of control. If costs keep going up, it's going to hurt the country. There's also the fundamental issue that everyone should have access to health care. If you get sick or some tragedy should befall you, you should be able get care without going into debt.

Q: The Young Invincibles campaign focuses on the large number of uninsured young adults—approximately 13.7 million. What have you found about how the lack of health insurance impacts young people's lives?

A: There’s a culture of anxiety and apprehension about the health care system. The people we come across, if they get injured, their first thought is not “Can I get care?,” it's “Can I avoid going to get care?” -- because it's going to be expensive.

Q: Young Invincibles is gathering stories about young peoples’ encounters with the health care system. What kinds of stories are you hearing?

A: A guy we know from Texas who didn't have health insurance was working on his car with a drill, gashed his leg badly, and went to the emergency room [and had staples put in his leg]. It wound up costing him thousands of dollars. By the end, he was so fed up with the process that he took out the staples by himself so he didn’t have to go back to get care.

Another young woman, maybe 23, had just graduated from the college. She was looking for a job and she decided to purchase COBRA [a government program that allows people to keep group health insurance for up to 18 months after leaving a job or losing coverage under a parent’s plan]. She developed a disease that at first was like a pneumonia or flu, but it developed into this serious blood disorder. If she stood up, her blood pressure changed drastically. It totally changed her life. Her fear is that if she uses her name or makes it clear who she is, her insurance will cancel her. Not only is she afraid of losing her coverage, she's afraid she won't be able to get coverage again.

Even young people who are lucky enough to have insurance have problems. Reforming the system is going to help everyone.

Q: Why do you think we haven’t heard many young voices in the debate about health care reform?

A: The media likes to report on the loudest and most aggressive opponents on both sides...There's also the idea of "young invincibles" in the media and insurance industry, which is where our name comes from. It’s the idea that young people don't care about health insurance. That's not my experience and it's not the experience of my friends. The vast majority of us would get insurance if it was affordable and available. We want to counter this myth. It's dismissive of young people in the health care debate.

Q: What is Young Invincibles doing to mobilize support and get young people involved in the health care reform debate?

A: People can sign up on our website to show they support affordable health care for all. We also have Y.I. Champions, who can post messages on Facebook, recruit friends to get involved or host a Y.I. party. We're going to do a day on the [Capitol] Hill. We're going to get young people to come and talk to their representatives and show them that they're not lobbyists or special interests, they're just passionate about the issue.

Young people were so critical in the 2008 election. Representatives saw the impact young people can have both in voting and mobilizing support. We think young people can create a compelling argument about health care reform, too.

Previously:

• Obama's Youth Appeal Trumps Political Apathy
• Ten Health Care Terms You Need to Know
• A 'Tonik' for Your Pain