Reply #16: Can only give our anecdote

[frazzled]

Which concerns our young adult child (early to mid 20s period), who lost her healtlh insurance twice and went without for several reasons. She was laid off from her job in a group layoff (the office, a branch of a company in another state, closed less than a year later). She was able to get Cobra, but the cost was approx. $500 per month. Being unemployed at the time, it was obviously unaffordable to her, so as her parents, we had to pay it--which was a real struggle to come up with. She later got a contract job, and then when the project she was involved with was canceled, she had to go on Cobra again. Trying to take it into her own hands this time (we sent her some extra money to help), she made a terrible mistake: she paid the first month's premium and waited to get a bill for the second. When it didn't come she called us, and we didn't know why. Within 2 weeks of not paying that second month, her Cobra was canceled: she was supposed to pay it automaticallly. She hadn't understood she wouldn't be billed. So, she went out on the advice of some friends and bought a private policy, cheap--which turned out to be a total ripoff piece of shit that didn't cover anything. We told her to cancel it, and we tried to get her better private individual insurance: she was turned down because of a previously existing condition.

Starting to get the picture of how hard this is, even when you want it?

This is the most uninsured age group. There are reasons beyond thinking they are young and invincible. Jobs are uncertain, good private insurance is either unaffordable or useless. She is so fed up with the insurance game that she mistrusts it all. The insurance she got at a current job has such a high deductible she still can't afford to go to the doctor except for emergencies.