President Barack Obama signed the bill for ObamaCare, which officially goes by Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), on March 23, 2010. The goal of ObamaCare is to give nearly 45 million Americans who do not currently have health insurance access to high quality and affordable health insurance while reducing the growth of health care spending.
An estimated three million people have signed up for ObamaCare since October 2013, while almost 800,000 people signed up for it in January 2014, according to cbsnews.com. The government expected to hit the three million mark by the end of 2013. The government also set a 40 percent target in how many of those who signed up for ObamaCare would be young adults ages 18-34 but has not yet reached that number. Young adults only make up 24 percent of the people who have purchased ObamaCare which is only 1 out of 4 enrollees. So why are young people enrolling at such low rates?
“I wish you could buy dental and health plans separately instead of having to get health to have dental,” Mayleen Cordero, a junior film major said. “Other than that, for my family at least, the rates would have been pretty affordable.”
Some students at the University of Tampa did not really understand or care what ObamaCare consists of.
“It does not affect me and I haven’t read much on it except congress not supporting it for a while,” said Amy Lee, a senior communication major.
The younger generation is what many online communities call ‘the invincibles,’ meaning they don’t think they will get sick or injured and are usually in a healthy condition. According to ObamaCareFacts.com, 1 in 6 young adults has a chronic illness, and half of uninsured young adults report having trouble paying medical bills. 55 percent of the people who enrolled in ObamaCare are between the ages of 45 and 64, according to cnbc.com. Older adults are typically more expensive to cover under insurance.
Recently, The White House enlisted sports stars such as Magic Johnson, who was diagnosed with HIV in 1991 after an early check up, to encourage young people to sign up for ObamaCare. Commercials will be aired on sports networks and also be available on YouTube, according to foxnews.com. ObamaCare allows young adults who are already on their parents’ plan to stay on until the age of 26, while also offering them cheaper health insurance. Kevin Frey, a sophomore film major, is covered under his parents’ plan.
Many young people are opting out of signing up for ObamaCare and are paying the individual mandate tax penalty for not having health insurance because it is cheaper. The study finds that after accounting for cost-sharing and subsidies in 2014, it would still be cheaper for 86 percent of young adults to forgo coverage and to pay the individual mandate instead, according to the American Action Forum (AAF) study. The percentage will decrease as the penalty increases.
“Even after the mandate penalty is fully implemented, a majority of young adult households will find that it is financially advantageous for them to forgo health insurance, pay the mandate penalty, and personally cover their own health care expenses,” the study says.
The penalty is applied to citizen’s annual tax income for each month without health insurance. The 2014 penalty is $95 per person per year. The penalty will increase to $325 next year and $695 in 2016. Many health care policies expect young people to wait until the final deadline to sign up. The purchase of ObamaCare ends March 31, and the government is aiming for seven million enrollees by the time enrollment closes.