Originally broadcast on NPR's Morning Edition on September 22, 2010.

By Molly Adams

Before 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."

This was good news for me -- two years since I became an official independent adult. That rite of passage was graduating college and being removed from my parents' health insurance coverage. And since then I haven't been able to find an affordable plan as a single person who works three different jobs. So when the law was signed I called my mom, Sheera LaBelle, and I asked her a question to which I could guess the answer: "Mom, will you take me back?"

Another September has rolled around, and school is back in session.  A new year however, does not necessarily mean new history textbooks- most of us can relate to using outdated materials and making due.  

This is NOT the case for sex education curriculum. For instance, students in Greensboro, North Carolina will learn about contraceptive strategies other than abstinence for the first time this year, according to an article in the News and Record.

There are two schools of thought in the United States about sex education: comprehensive and abstinence-only.  President Obama is giving states a large incentive to adopt a comprehensive sex education curriculum, that includes information about sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and varied methods of contraception.  He included a program in his Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (passed in March 2010) called the Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP).  This program allows states to apply for a minimum of $250,000 to implement a comprehensive sex education program that addresses more than just abstinence as a form of contraception.  Applications for this funding were due two weeks ago.

According to the Department of Health and Human Services, at least three of the following topics must be included in the state's curriculum:

a. Healthy relationships, such as positive self-esteem and relationship dynamics,
friendships, dating, romantic involvement, marriage, and family interactions.
b. Adolescent development, such as the development of healthy attitudes and values about
adolescent growth and development, body image, racial and ethnic diversity, and other
related subjects.
c. Financial literacy.
d. Parent-child communication.
e. Educational and career success, such as developing skills for employment preparation,
job seeking, independent living, financial self-sufficiency, and work-place productivity.
f. Healthy life skills, such as goal-setting, decision making, negotiation, communication and
interpersonal skills, and stress management.

by: Emily Beaver

Under 26 with no health insurance? Signing up for Mom or Dad's health insurance plan later this year might be the cure.

On September 23, part of health care reform that allows young adults to get insurance coverage through their parents' plans until age 26 will become law. Before Congress passed health care reform earlier this year, every state had different rules about how long young people could be covered under their parents' plans. Insurance plans could drop young adults when they turned 19 or graduated from college. Some states allowed young people to stay on their parents plans into their twenties, but required them to live with their parents, be unmarried, or be a college student.

The good news for young people is that the new law does away with these rules, said Ari Matusiak, co-founder the Young Invincibles, an organization that promotes opportunities for people ages 18 to 34. Starting September 24, young adults living in any state won't have to live with their parents, be students, or even be unmarried to be insured through a parent's health care plan, he said.

Matusiak and Young Invincibles co-founder Aaron Smith teamed up with AARP, a group for people over age 50, to answer questions about the new law at a virtual town hall meeting in Sacramento, California on Thursday. They also introduced GettingCovered.org, a new website that helps young adults find out if they can get insured through a parent's plan. The site, created by the Young Invincibles, lets young adults and their parents take a short quiz to find their health care options - they can even get personal "health care prescriptions" based on their quiz results e-mailed to them. Employers can also find information about adding adult children to insurance plans.

This story originally aired on NPR's Morning Edition, March 24, 2010

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.

Cesscia Rojo and her sister Adriana are young and healthy, except they have dental issues. Major ones. Cesscia says, when they needed care, they used to go to Tijuana, Mexico.

“I went to Tijuana and that’s where they started the root canal. When I came back, all the problems started with the drugs dealers, so I wasn’t going back to TJ anytime soon.”

Both sisters have tried to get dental care in the U-S. Adriana used a free clinic in Southern California to have a broken tooth pulled. But she needs more dental work.

“I still have a hole in my mouth. It hurts sometimes if I chew bread cuz it goes in there and it hurts, but other than that it’s good.”

The sisters live at a home with their parents. Cesscia says they enjoy cooking dinner together every night.

"See really you know, Mexican culture, we, they hold on to us until we’re married. And we’re not married, and we’re here until we finish school. And then we’ll take them in. And we’re just going to stay together."

By: Emily Beaver

The House of Representative passed a health care reform bill Sunday, delivering on President Obama's promise of change.

After months of debate, argument, and just plain bickering about health care, the House passed a health care reform bill by a vote of 219-212. Only Democrats supported the bill, which will extend health insurance to millions of people and will provide new protections for people who already have insurance. The vote was historic -- if it becomes a law, it would require almost all Americans to have insurance for the first time. The vote was also exciting -- one of those rare times when watching Congress work felt more like witnessing history than watching sausage being made.

"This isn't radical reform, but it is major reform," Obama said at a press conference after the vote. "This is what change looks like."

What the House passed on Sunday was just one piece of health care reform bill, called the reconciliation bill. Next, Obama will sign the health care reform bill the Senate passed in December. On Tuesday, the Senate will have to pass the reconciliation bill before health care reform becomes law.

By: Emily Beaver

If you dozed off during the endless debate over health care reform, it's time to perk up. Members of Congress are planning to make a decision on a health reform bill this week.

So what's happening now? After political changes in January stalled Democrats' efforts to overhaul our health care system, President Obama stepped in. After February's televised health care summit, Obama said it was time for Congress to stop the endless debate on health care reform and take action. Democrats are worried that if they don't pass a health reform bill soon, reform will lose momentum as members of Congress break for Easter recess.

Obama has gone on the road to push for health reform, making his first stop at Arcadia University to rally support for reform. The Democratic party's leadership is counting votes (they need 216 votes in the House and 51 in the Senate to pass reform) and trying to convince members of their party who haven't agreed to vote for reform. Obama even took Dennis Kucinich, a Democratic Congressman from Ohio, for a ride on Air Force One to persuade him to vote for the health care reform. Republicans are mounting their own campaign to get lawmakers to vote against healthcare reform. Interest groups are dropping millions on advertisements to pressure lawmakers into voting against (or for) the bill.

While this is a big moment for health care reform, what actually happens in Congress this week may not be dramatic. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has suggested that members of the House of Representatives may try to approve the bill without technically voting on it, using a legislative tactic called the "self-executing rule." If Congress passes reform, the way Americans access and pay for health care could change drastically. But this isn't our country's first attempt at changing our health care system. If Democrats can't get the votes they need --or find another legislative maneuver to pass reform--it's quite possible that we'll still have the same health care system we've been complaining about for years.

At times, the health reform debate has reminded me of the noise a refrigerator makes -- after a while, you get so used to the monotonous hum in the background you automatically tune it out. If Congress doesn't pass reform now, the health care debate won't vanish. It will just keep humming in the background.

[UPDATE: The White House has starting posting the video in chunks. Part one is up, with more to follow.]

Riveting at points, boring as all hell at others, today's Health Care summit is the kind of politics we haven't seen before. The whole health care debate has been ugly, sometimes quite literally so. While there's been a fair amount of disingenuous arguments made around that table the crazy beautiful thing that happened today is this: we got to see them sit around that table.

Oh sure we've had CSPAN for ages, but can you really count footage from an empty Senate chamber as a real look at democracy? And yes, the politicians gave speeches to each other. We have to be a little patient, they're politicians after all. Anyone whose ever sat in on a high school debate tournament will recognize that the kind of person who grows up to be a politician isn't really trained to listen for anything but some leverage to use against the other guy. So it will take some time before this kind of thing produces real, rational discussion, but here's to baby steps.

Here's to America coming of age.

By Emily Beaver

As most of us were sitting down in front of our TVs to watch the Super Bowl last weekend, President Obama announced he would hold a televised health care reform summit on February 25. The summit is aimed at bringing Democrats and Republicans back to the table to talk about health care reform. Reform has stalled since Democrats lost a Senate seat in January.

If you haven't been paying attention, it's worth tuning back into the health care debate. What Congress decides to do -- or not do -- about health care will have a big affect on young adults, who are more likely to be uninsured than any other age group.

Aaron Smith, a Georgetown University law student and one of the founders of Young Invincibles, the youth advocacy group that's worked to get young people involved in the health care reform debate, says it's been challenging to keep young people engaged during the long debate. Smith says he thinks young people are looking for a signal that Congress is going to move forward with reform.

Krisja Hendricks, a 28-year-old New Yorker, says she hopes members of Congress will be able to "put politics aside and focus on helping people get affordable health insurance."

Hendricks, who has struggled to get health insurance after suffering chronic illnesses, has been speaking out about health care reform since Rock the Vote asked its members to submit personal stories about health care last year. In October, she spoke in support of extending dependent health insurance coverage--the length of time young adults can stay insured under their parents' health plans--at a press conference held by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

By: Emily Beaver

After Massachusetts voters elected Republican Scott Brown of Massachusetts to the Senate Tuesday, members of Congress immediately starting talking about what to do about health reform.

"Scaling back", "paring down", and "stripping down" are some of the phrases being used to describe how health care reform might change since the Democrats lost their filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. It sounds more like going on a diet than changing public policy -- but what politicians are really talking about cutting out are reforms that would help everyone get health insurance. And with young adults making up a disproportionate share of the uninsured population, many young people wouldn't receive any benefits from a "scaled back" health reform package.

So what does Tuesday's election mean? Some politicians read the election as a sign the public is more concerned about jobs than health care. Some are saying the public just doesn't support or understand the health care reform plans Democrats originally proposed. Others say Massachusetts voters, who already have a statewide universal health insurance program, don't want to help other states that haven't provided insurance to all residents.

Our series of health care Q&A's continues as our health care blogger Emily Beaver fields a video question about how the health care reform efforts are going to affect monthly premiums.