patrick.net

Many younger people don't have insurance because they don't believe that they need it. So, their costs will go up from zip to whatever they pay.

You are forgetting the subsidies to make it affordable - but if they don't qualify for the assistance they can probably afford the premium. It might not have been their priority before, but one accident or disease can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. they just don't realize it's helping them until they need it. Dan8267 says

I fail to see the ethics in forcing 20-somethings to subsidize the very 60-somethings keeping them out of jobs and houses.

Are the 60 somethings really keeping them out of jobs and houses? Did they have control over when they were born or what the economy has been during their lifetimes?

The website that you linked to blames Obama for everything - refers to "obaracades" keeping people out of government areas during the shut down and blames the shutdown itself on President Obama. How can you trust a site that purports to be a news site if all it does is regurgitate the info Faux News and the Republican party is creating?

The House Republicans are playing political poker with people's lives, betting that they can change a law that they're calling unconstitutional (it's not) and illegal (the conservative supreme court didn't think so) and that they've tried to defeat over 40 times (failed).

All that they have to do is stop acting like spoiled little bitches and allow the government to start functioning again. They don't care about their constituents who are out of work - and they don't accept that the Affordable Care act is so popular that state websites crashed with all of the traffic of people who were trying to sign up.

I had nothing to do with the younger generation's lack of ability to get jobs. Why are you blaming me?

elliemae says

Many younger people don't have insurance because they don't believe that they need it.

I would argue that younger people don't have insurance because they know they are getting ripped off by it. Hence the need for age brackets.

elliemae says

Are the 60 somethings really keeping them out of jobs and houses?

The housing bubble, which still hasn't fully deflated, most certainly has kept the Millennials out of buying. As for jobs, the managers and executives of today are precisely the ones who have downsized the job market and locked the Millennials out of it.

elliemae says

How can you trust a site that purports to be a news site if all it does is regurgitate the info Faux News and the Republican party is creating?

I'm certainly open to evidence contradicting the claims of this article. However, it is obvious that the intent of forcing the young to buy insurance was to subsidize the old, not to protect the young. This was obvious from the moment the individual mandate was proposed. If you want, I can post countless other articles that confirm this principle.

elliemae says

The House Republicans are playing political poker with people's lives, betting that they can change a law that they're calling unconstitutional (it's not) and illegal (the conservative supreme court didn't think so) and that they've tried to defeat over 40 times (failed).

The House Republicans are wrong; that does not make the individual mandate right or just. If an individual mandate is necessary, then ethics demands that policies be age bracketed to prevent one generation from abusing another.

elliemae says

I had nothing to do with the younger generation's lack of ability to get jobs. Why are you blaming me?

Obviously not all 60-somethings are taking advantage of 20-somethings. However, as a group, the older generation is siphoning off the meager earnings of the younger generation and in doing so ensuring that the younger generation will lose decades of their lives paying back debts and building the same level of assets the Boomers had by their 30th birthdays.

Impoverishing young adults affects the conditions in which their children and grandchildren will grow up in. It also exponentially affects the retirement savings the Millennials will have when they are senior citizens. Even a modest $10K in a Roth IRA compounded over a lifetime makes a huge difference in retirement savings. If Social Security is on unstable ground now, image what it will be like for the Millennials.

Zzzz... as I mentioned last week apples and oranges. You might check that section of the report. The age band compression is a legitimate gripe.

See AARP.

Dan8267 says

The housing bubble, which still hasn't fully deflated, most certainly has kept the Millennials out of buying. As for jobs, the managers and executives of today are precisely the ones who have downsized the job market and locked the Millennials out of it.

I'm not responsible for the housing bubble, nor am I responsible for the bust. I do applaud the 24 year old man who bought a house in my neighborhood that had once been appraised for $299k for a deeply discounted $120k.

The managers and executives of today aren't the only ones who have created problems for the milennials. They are a small component of the system.

I get that you are angry - but:

Dan8267 says

However, as a group, the older generation is siphoning off the meager earnings of the younger generation and in doing so ensuring that the younger generation will lose decades of their lives paying back debts and building the same level of assets the Boomers had by their 30th birthdays.

This statement is quite contradictory. You say that the Boomers have everything - and had quite a bit of everything by their 30th birthdays. It's their fault that they were greedy, and that their conspicuous consumption has created a vacuum that the younger generation will never be able to fill.

And yet the younger generation deserves to be in the same position that your dream boomers were on their 30th birthday?

Our system is pretty fucked up - I'll give you that. But it'll never be fair. If it were, these huge corporations that pay little or no taxes would be forced to contribute substantially more and healthcare costs for everyone would be cheap as shit.

In other words, Dan, you are blaming the wrong people and buying into the hype. You're better than that.

Dan8267 says

Especially when the generation being screwed over has already been screwed
by
- obscene housing costs
- exponentially increasing college costs
-
extremely high joblessness after earning degrees
and the generation being
subsidized has already benefited from
- the greatest appreciation in stocks
and housing in U.S. history
- the best job markets
- pensions and social
security

Dan, thank you for standing up for the Millennials. I don't know if I'm technically in the "Millennial" generation (I'm 33), but I'm feeling the same economic pressures.

As for the ACA, I don't know enough about it to have an informed opinion.

I would argue that younger people don't have insurance because they know they are getting ripped off by it. Hence the need for age brackets.

BINGO we have a winner

I pride myself at being a good horsetrader. Shouldn't every strive to be in a capitalist system, or even a system like ours that pretends to be capitalist?

I know the work I must put in, and the dollars I receive in trade. I know what a healthy diet looks like (the opposite of the usfedgov suggested western standard american diet), and I put the work in to make sure I stay healthy.

What do the democrats offer in return? They want me to follow them to the scrotum of the mega corporations that sell "insurance" for my healthcare, and get to sucking on their ballsack. No thanks.

As a 32 year old, I've already shipped off over 50k to these mega corps black hole of rentier death. That needs to stop. Instead, the dems want to assure that over the next 40 years, that I ship off another half a million in lost wages to these wholly unnecessary assholes.

Get fucked you dumb motherfuckers

errc says

As a 32 year old, I've already shipped off over 50k to these mega corps black hole of rentier death. That needs to stop.

I know, you're invincible. Your healthy diet makes you completely safe from disease. You'll never need expensive medical treatment. ;-)

However, I do agree that the insurance companies are evil fucks.

freak80 says

errc says

As a 32 year old, I've already shipped off over 50k to these mega corps black hole of rentier death. That needs to stop.

I know, you're invincible. Your healthy diet makes you completely safe from disease. You'll never need expensive medical treatment. ;-)

However, I do agree that the insurance companies are evil fucks.

Rather then making yet another sarcastic smug ass remark, wishing that I would get sick so you could say I told you so, why not explain what it is you think might happen to me, that warrants me spending so god damned much money on insuring that I'll be alright?

List the different things you wish to happen to me, what the health insurance ass rape complex solution is to said problem, the probability of them happening, and their costs,,,,

The millennials already have unpayable student loan debt. What's a few more trillion piled on? That way, when they pull the trigger, they won't see a Chinese/Russian/Iranian soldier/civilian, it will be the face of the debt collector. And anyway, the millennials will live longer thanks to stem cells. If not, at least it will seem that way.

Dan8267 says

forcing 20-somethings to subsidize the very 60-somethings

This is an oversimplification, and wrong. A few key points.

-The ACA does not subsidize medicare

-The ACA does cover pre-existing conditions, this is one of the things "being subsidized" by getting everyone covered.

-If you're twenty something now, or 30, one day you will be 60 too, and hopefully your health care then will cost you a lower percentage of your income than what 60 year olds pay now.

-It kinda sucks that 28 year olds now are the first ones that have to have insurance (or pay a small fine to be covered), but hey, shit happens.

First of all, anyone- regardless of age- who doesn't have health insurance is an idiot. They are one step away from instant bankruptcy. Second of all, 95% of the things mentioned on the OP's list has nothing to do with Obamacare. If you will recall, Obamacare actually allows 20-somethings to stay on their parent's healthcare plans longer- far longer than when I was on my 20's.

Let me also say this. I'm in my mid 30's now, so not far from being within this age bracket myself. When I was in my 20's, I too felt like I was getting totally screwed: When I graduated the job market sucked. Real estate was too expensive. My car insurance was higher. In other words- not exactly different from how things are now. But I made it, it was a LOT of hard work, and now I do fairly well. Sure- I'm not thrilled with the way the system works, but subsidizing older generations is something that's been happening for a very, very long time so I'm not sure how this is a miraculous revelation...

edvard2 says

First of all, anyone- regardless of age- who doesn't have health insurance is an idiot.

+1.

I'm sure my niece would have been content to not have insurance, but when she was diagnosed with Crohn's she found out she needed it. The brain deficiencies that lead younger people to discount their own mortality risks, doesn't mean we have to indulge them.

The alternative in the past has often been to let the family assume the costs once they screw up. Unacceptable with current prices.