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:

By: Emily Beaver

For many young people, health insurance is unaffordable. But under some plans to reform health care, going without health insurance will be expensive, too.

Senator Max Baucus recently introduced a health care reform plan that requires everyone to get insurance. Anyone who doesn't have insurance would be fined up to $950 a year, depending on income.

Making sure everyone gets health insurance is an important goal of many of the plans to reform health care. For some, the principle that everyone should have health care is behind the "individual mandate" requiring everyone to get health insurance. But there's another reason lawmakers want to get everyone insured--to lower the government's cost of making health insurance affordable.

All forms of insurance, including health insurance, work by spreading costs among a pool of people. Since young people generally spend less on medical care, their insurance premiums help to subsidize the cost of care for older, sicker people. When young people don't buy insurance, costs go up for those who are insured. So making sure everyone contributes to health insurance is important to lowering costs overall.

Senator Baucus' reform bill does offer a few benefits for young people. His plan would allow some low-income young people to get insurance under the government's Medicaid program, which has been closed to young adults who don't have children.

The bill would also create a "young invincibles" health care plan available to Americans age 25 and younger, which would cover emergency medical and preventive care only.

By: Emily Beaver

President Obama recently brought the health care reform debate to a youth audience at the University of Maryland. The rally was the president's first youth event since his campaign and the atmosphere was similar to a campaign rally. At the end of the rally, Obama pumped up an enthusiastic crowd of 15,000 people with his "fired up, ready to go" chant.

In contrast to the festive atmosphere, the rally opened with a young-- and sobering--perspective on health care reform. Before introducing the president, 20-year-old University of Maryland junior Rachel Peck spoke about surviving papillary thyroid cancer during her freshman year. Peck was covered under her parents' health insurance, but said she worried about being able to pay for treatment if her cancer returns. She told the crowd to do something about health care now.

Obama's speech was similar to the one he delivered to Congress earlier this month, although he focused on the importance of health reform for young people. One in three young adults live without insurance and are "one accident or illness away from bankruptcy," Obama said. Read more...