Youth Radio - Topic: Baucus Bill

Generation Invincible

rpereira — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 13:11:27 -0500

We are Generation Invincible.
19-29 year old Americans.
30 percent uninsured.
We’re often left out of the health care debate.

These are our stories.

Generation Invincible

Young Adult Considers Returning to Parents' Health Plan

" A health care reform was signed into law, President Obama made a speech where he was pretty much talking to me when he said: "If you're a young adult, which many of you are, you'll be able to stay on your parents' insurance policy until you're 26 years old." ”

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Watching Your Health Chip Away

" President Obama signed the health care overhaul bill into law yesterday. Still, some health organizations want more to be done to provide care to uninsured Americans including the American Dental Association. They opposed the bill because it didn't increase funding for dental services paid by Medicaid. And that, the ADA says, won't help the millions of Americans without dental insurance. Youth Radio's Jennifer Obakhume visits one family dealing with that reality. " ”

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Abortion and the Health Care Debate

" Abortion has long been a hot political topic--and now it's becoming part of the health care debate. So what does abortion have to do with health care? Members of Congress are arguing about which health insurance plans should cover abortions. ”

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Breaking Down the House Health Reform Bill

" The House of Representatives passed its version of health care reform, the Affordable Health Care for America Act, or H.R. 3962. The bill is almost 2,000 pages long. Haven't read it yet? Here are a few parts of the bill that could have a big impact on young people. ”

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Do You Need Dental Insurance?

"If you've been skipping dentist visits to save some cash, you're not alone.

Recent surveys say that many Americans, even ones who have dental insurance, skipped dental care in 2009 to save money. And people who don't have dental insurance, which is usually sold separately from health insurance, are even more likely to skip dentist visits. ”

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Is Catastrophic Health Insurance for You?

" Richard Peterson has never been injured or seriously ill. So when Peterson, a 24-year-old law student, was dropped from his parents' health insurance plan in 2008, he considered not buying insurance. Peterson could have gotten health insurance through his school, George Mason University in Arlington, Virginia, but the plan would have cost him about $100 a month. His wife gets health insurance at work, but getting added to her policy also would have been expensive, Peterson says. ”

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Mom and Dad's Health Insurance May Be Yours -Speaker Pelosi on keeping young people insured longer.

This week, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that under a health reform bill in the House of Representatives, young adults could stay insured under their parents' plans through age 26.

Members of Y.I. Want Change, a coalition of youth organizations formed by the Young Invincibles health reform advocacy group, and their supporters stood with Pelosi when she made the announcement at a press conference. The reform could be an important victory for young people.

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Young Doesn't Mean Invincible - an interview with one of the founders of the advocacy group Young Invincibles.

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.

Rock the Health Care Debate - Rock the Vote mashes up the Dept. of Health and Human Services and Fall Out Boy??

Ten Health Care Terms You Need to Know - a guide to ten terms that need to be household words.

Young Docs Talk Health Reform - from the chaos of med school to the chaos of the health care debate.

Old vs. Young -- the Health Care Tug of War - how your age can affect the cost of health care.

No Health Insurance? That'll be $950 - having insurance might soon be the law.

Can Obama Get Youth 'Fired Up' Over Health Care? - the President reaches out to Generation Invincible.

Obama's Health Care Speech -- Hard to Swallow? - Emily Beaver reacts to Obama's speech.

Ten More Health Care Terms You Need to Know - becuase if the debate needed anything, it was more terms.

Check out more Generation Invincible Stories...

The Lowdown on Free Clinics

By Jennifer DePau.

" Until an affordable public health care option is offered, many young Americans remain uninsured and unable to pay the high cost of healthcare insurance. As youth scramble to find alternative healthcare options and steer clear of the doctor’s office, there is one option many may not be aware of—free/low-cost/sliding scale walk-in clinics. ”

Nursing a Career in the Midst of Healthcare Reform -

By Adania Navarro.

" As an aspiring nurse, I was happy to hear about the Senate Finance Committee’s approval of a health care bill aimed at covering about 94% of Americans. With that many people getting medical care, you’d think the government would have thought about the workforce necessary to give that care. ”

Can't Spare a Dime for Health Care -

Molly Adams, recent college graduate. Status: uninsured.

"So what do you do?” is a question people ask a lot when you're
fresh out of college. I’m a freelancer, doing all kinds of broadcast
production jobs. But that doesn’t cover my rent.

So I’m also a bartender.

Ten More Health Care Terms You Need to Know

rpereira — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 15:12:13 -0500

By Emily Beaver

When it comes to the health care reform debate, the lingo keeps changing. One day, everyone's talking about the public option and the next day it's health care co-operatives.With so many different ideas and plans about how to change health care in Congress right now, it's hard to keep up with up with all of the health care terms in the headlines.

Here are ten more health reforms terms you need to know to follow the debate:

1. Baucus Bill

Max Baucus, a Democrat from Montana, has sponsored a health care reform bill that is moving through the Senate. If Congress passes the bill into law, it will determine how the health care system is reformed. Senator Baucus' bill does not include a public option, or a government-run health insurance plan. Some of the bill's other features include requiring all Americans to have health insurance and offering a "young invincibles" health insurance plan for Americans under age 25.

2. Single-payer health care system

Under a single-payer health care system, the government is the only party that pays for health care costs. The United States currently has a multiple-payer health care system, which means many sources, including several private insurance companies and the government pay for Americans' health care. Advocates of single-payer systems say the system lowers health care costs by cutting down on administrative costs and can help provide health insurance for more people. Although some critics of American health insurance say the country should adopt a single-payer system, most politicians aren't considering a single-payer system as part of health care reform.

3. Health care cooperative

Health care cooperatives or "co-ops" have been touted as an alternative to the public option, or a government-run health insurance plan. In health care cooperatives, groups of doctors provide health care services to patients who don't use health insurance to pay for medical care. Co-ops are non-profit organizations owned by patients who pay premiums to belong to the co-op and may vote on a board of directors. The Baucus Bill calls for the government to provide money to help create health care co-ops.

4. Age-rating

Private health insurers often charge older people higher premiums than younger people, a practice called age-rating. Insurers say that older adults should be charged more than younger adults because on average, they have more health problems and spend more on health care. The Baucus bill would limit how much more insurers can charge people for health insurance based on age. Under the bill, insurers could only charge an older person four times as much as a younger person, known as a 4:1 ratio. Some politicians are pushing for a 2:1 ratio.

5. Guaranteed issue

Many plans for health reform will require private health insurance companies to sell insurance to everyone who wants it, a standard called guaranteed issue. Right now, health insurers may refuse to sell insurance to people who have pre-existing medical conditions, like asthma or diabetes. Some critics think guaranteed issue will cause people to wait until they're sick to buy health insurance.

6. Dependents

President Obama has said that health reform should help young people who don't have insurance by allowing them to remain as dependents on their parents' health insurance plans until age 26. Many states have already increased the age of dependency so young people can stay insured under their parents' health insurance plans into their 20s.

7. Health care subsidies

Many health care reform plans being debated in Congress will require all Americans to have health insurance, an idea known as an "individual mandate." However, if the government forces everyone to have health insurance, it will have to help people who can't afford insurance pay for it. Most health care reform plans will help people who can't afford health care by providing subsidies, or tax credits that cover part of the cost of health care. Some are worried that health care subsidies proposed by the government won't be enough to make health care affordable to all Americans.

8. Bending the curve

The cost of providing health care in America has risen so quickly in recent years that when the cost is plotted on a line chart, it curves upward. When politicians and policy makers talk about "bending the curve," they mean slowing down the growth of health care costs. Bending the curve is an important goal behind health care reform.

9. Out-of-pocket costs

Health care fees paid for by patients are referred to as "out-of-pocket costs." An example of an out-of-pocket cost is a co-payment, which is a flat fee that a patient pays each time they use a medical service, such as a doctor's visit or emergency room visit. President Obama has said that health care reform should limit out-of-pocket costs for consumers.

10. Comparative effectiveness

Comparative effectiveness research is used to determine which medical treatments are the most effective and compare how much those treatments costs. Comparative effectiveness studies could be an important part of the health care reform because they could help doctors determine which treatments are the most effective and provide the best price. Health care reform bills would pay for comparative effectiveness studies in an attempt to lower the costs of providing medical treatments.

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