The College Kids don't want to be forced to pay for Health Insurance

[HopeforChange]

They get out of college at maybe age 25 deep in debt in college loans and struggle to find a job for perhaps 6 months to a year or more. Then when they get one they need to pay loans, get a home, a car, etc... They are healthy young people barely getting by and trying to save some money. They can not afford Health insurance dung that time of their lives.

Hillary's plans to force they to pay for this will back fire on her.

[lvx35]

1. So when they go to the ER, everybody else pays for it.

When they can't pay the $40,000 debt for the operations that saved their lives.

[jasmine621]

31. Most college kids don't want to be responsible for anything. They

are too used to their boomer parents giving them everything they wanted.

[Radical Activist]

2. They already disproportionately pay much of their paycheck to social security and medicare.

Its no wonder college students are voting for Obama. Clinton is determined to take what little money they have and give it to seniors, the wealthiest per capita age group in America.
Meanwhile, all Clinton wants to do for students is let them take out more loans and a lower interest rate (instead of grants) and maybe if they're lucky they can get money for college through a work program. Clinton has been pandering to the over 60 set for a long time because that's who votes and college students don't.

[DURHAM D]

6. "disproportionately" What, they pay a higher rate? No.

I have been paying into the system for over 40 years. It will be several years before I draw a dime back for social security or medicare. Where is the money currently going - the WWII generation.

What makes today's college kids different then college kids in the 60s - selfishness. I get so tired of the little "me machines".

[monktonman]

8. Me machines???

whos running the world now??
College kids from the sixties!

[Konza]

13. It's sad when people become what they hated.

So many posters simply love to hate on the younger voters. "Damn kids today". How did so many boomers morph into their reactionary parents?
How can this be? I'm really trying to figure out this dynamic, where (some of) the Young Democrats of the 60s are turning into the Eisenhowers of the 21st Century.

[Radical Activist]

9. They are regressive taxes.

People who make little on wages pay a higher portion of their income to social security and medicare. They're the most regressive and unfair progressive programs the government runs.

I kind of chuckled at you calling the "ME generation" less selfish.

[JDPriestly]

17. On this point you are correct.

It isn't Social Security that is wrong. It's the cap and the distribution of the payments into the fund. The percentage paid toward Social Security should be reduced and the cap simply done away with. The cap is what is wrong.

[DURHAM D]

24. I agree with that.

[JDPriestly]

16. A minority of seniors are wealthy. Most have barely enough

to get by -- and what they have they have worked for all their lives. I did some research on ERISA law some years ago and was shocked at how little money the average American has upon retiring. It is absolutely appalling. You may not notice the elderly poor. The wealthy poor are very visible. The poor are not.

I got my Social Security cards 50 years ago when I was 14. I have paid into Social Security the better part of 50 years. Don't think for a minute that Obama will be able to get elected if he does not absolutely guarantee Social Security for seniors. This is a life and death matter for most seniors. The monthly payments are very small in fact and many seniors live on those payments.

[Radical Activist]

19. A minority of all age groups are wealthy.

As a group they are doing better than those in their early to mid 20's who are in or just out of college. That's why you see a record number of 20-somethings moving back home with their parents after college. Its not laziness. Its the economy.

[JDPriestly]

25. The 20-somethings have years of potential earnings ahead of them.

It is normal to have little in your 20s. We started with nothing. Our wedding rings cost only $7 and $12, and we could barely afford them.

Employment and earning opportunities increase until you are maybe in your 50s, and then they decrease as you age. At 25, a person's chance of getting a job and earning an increasingly larger salary is very great. At the age of 65, a person's chance of getting a job and earning additional money is about zero, nada. Just try to get a decent job for a trustworthy employer if you are over 50. It gets harder and harder every year after that.

Let's say there is a job for a sales clerk anywhere but at Walmart's. A 25-year-old will be hired over a 65-year-old with the same education any day. The poverty of the over-65s is never ending -- irreversible. A younger person can learn new, more competitive skills -- assuming jobs are available. Learning new skills usually does not make the older person more competitive. It's not lack of knowledge or skill or experience that makes the older person unemployable. And training in new skills is usually not cost effective because that training is likely to cost more than any increased earning capacity due to training.

So, if you measure wealth in currently held dollar amounts, older people for whom you are measuring the savings and assets earned over maybe 35-40 years will seem greater. But, because that is the sum total of what they are likely to earn for the rest of their lives, the older person with all those assets probably has far less cash flow or accessible assets than a person earning a low salary at the age of 20 who has that life of ever increasing wages ahead of him or her. You can't measure wealth as a static thing. You have to count earning capacity.

Right now, an older person is lucky to get an interest rate of 4% on money held in cash in a bank, and unless you have a lot of money, investing in the stock market is a gamble that an older person who must live off the earnings and principal saved over his or her life cannot take.

Imagine that you have to live on $900.00 per month from Social Security and $20,000 in the bank for the next 20 years without the ability to earn any more than that. Would you feel "wealthy7"

Another factor you are not considering is that the Dick Cheneys, the Warren Buffets and others of that generation who are wealthy beyond any imaginable amount, whose wealth is probably so great that it is futile to even try to measure it precisely at any point in time, skew the numbers. Very few if any people can be shown to have that kind of wealth in their 20s -- although there are people in their 20s who are fated to inherit that kind of wealth one of these days. But they will be older, so they will be counted as wealthy and older. The wealthy elderly is, unfortunately, more fiction than fact. But, elderly people have more "discretionary" time -- at the price of having less money overall.

[JDPriestly]

32. My 20-somethings lived with us after college.

We loved it.

If Social Security benefits are cut, a lot of seniors will move in with their children and grandchildren. Younger people will not like that at all.

[SammyWinstonJack]

23. ...

:thumbsup:

[xchrom]

3. they are going to pay for it regardless -- or someone else is.

and the more people covered the less expensive it will be.
'
if they are experiencing financial stress -- then there will be medicare options available.

congress will have more incentive to ride insurance companies -- and hopefull move us more quickly toward nationalized healthcare.

[lumberjack_jeff]

4. Is modern college education really so inadequate?

Universal health care is a good, efficient and socially beneficial thing because it's universal... um, dude.

[gmudem]

10. Yess our ejucashun is verey gud

And because we're going to be spending most of our lives cleaning up after the previous generations, we'd rather not be punished by the government for not having health insurance.

The condescension and dismissive attitude towards young people on DU can be extremely frustrating. But it's just another example of Clinton supporters willing to bash anybody who does not bown to Queen Inevitable.

[lumberjack_jeff]

21. No, you'll be punished by illness for not having health insurance.

And that punishment will be spread around to the rest of society who'll pick up the slack.

In my experience, this generation is a generation of risk-takers, but with the consequences mitigated. Sadly, they can't empathize with those holding the safety net beneath their high wire act.

[Tarc]

5. "Healthy young people" don't have accidents?

Fascinating.

[Fovea]

7. When I worked in Orthopedic Surgery

I saw a large number of young, healthy, entirely broken students.
When I worked the ER, I saw a lot of their infant kids because they didn't have health insurance.

I say enough fucking wedge issues.

[loveangelc]

11. I agree! This is one of the main reasons I do not supprt her

[sandnsea]

12. Personally, I'm not terribly worried about them

Health insurance is cheap at that age anyway. I'm worried about single moms, low income couples with kids, 60 year olds who don't qualify for Medicare yet, all sorts of people who are going to be in real trouble with her mandate.

[JDPriestly]

14. If they don't have money, their health insurance should be

subsidized by those that do. It is important to have regular dental and medical care when you are in your 20s. A lot of health problems begin during those years. Some of the most obvious ones are obesity, alcoholism, lung and circulation problems due to smoking, diabetes, high cholesterol, certain forms of cancer even . . . . There are many more. It is extremely important to start good health habits in your 20s. Young people need to exercise regularly -- and if they do exercise regularly, they may need medical care for sports injuries. Young people need health insurance. Health care should not be rationed according to ability to pay. Basic health care should be available to young and old.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

29. But if it's decided that you can "afford" health insurance you won't be subsidized

Single childless people, which is what many in their 20s are, don't get any breaks when it comes to taxation or qualifying for benefits. Here in AZ, to qualify for state health care I can't make more than $850 a month. Do you think I could afford health insurance if I made $850 a month? Apparently, the government does.

I agree with you that basic health care should be available to everyone. Single payer.

[JDPriestly]

33. I advocate loudly for single payer, but I realize that many Americans

have been brainwashed to oppose it. I am for it, because I lived for quite a number of years in Europe where I had it and loved it. What Americans do not understand is that with single payer insurance you have a direct relationship with the doctor of your choice. The only difference is that the doctor applies to the government instead of to a private insurer for his or her payment. We usually paid a small co-pay for consultations with doctors. Other than that, our contribution toward the health coverage was simply taken out of our paychecks. It was a part of the taxes. So, Europeans pay higher taxes than Americans, but instead of just bombs and more bombs, they get health care. It's a great system.

[CompSciStudent]

15. Hillary’s health plan covers everyone at half the cost of Obamas plan that leaves 22 million out

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x4452440

[politicks]

18. i agree.

[CreekDog]

20. Pay for it with what money?

Do any of you remember how little money you had in college?

[AngryAmish]

28. They will have to take out loans to pay for it

College kids are no longer eligible for welfare.

[OzarkDem]

22. If they get jobs, their employers will pay for it - at least under Clinton

Obama folks need to end this demagoguery about everyone having to buy their own health insurance. That's not the scenario at all under Clinton's plan.

Incentives will be given to businesses to provide coverage - that will continue to be the way most Americans will get their health insurance.

[Leopolds Ghost]

34. Clinton plan same as welfare "Get a Job, you lazy Bum"

This is the working class wing of the party?

When did the DLC, with their agenda of moving ALL working families
out of the inner city by inflating the cost of homeownership,
become the party of the working class?

[rodeodance]

26. you know nothing about their health plans do you!

[gulliver]

27. And some of them are probably dumb enough to fall for your BS too.

Which is what you are counting on no doubt...

Is there no level of dumbness too dumb in these arguments? No level of dishonesty too dishonest?

I feel sorry for the young, because they are being baited like half-wits.

[adapa]

30. example; family makes $37K/y, they end up paying $25/m insurance for each kid

This is Under the NH healthy Kids plan, otherwise known as SCHIP- I"m not saying Clintons plan will be the same but if it's bases on a similar sliding scale income plan as the SCHIP program is it will be affordable by everyone.
child support payments & child care are taken off income. I don't see why other deductions couldn't be made.

[McCamy Taylor]

35. This is why, by the time they are 40, they will be fat, hypertensive with bad hearts.

Grow up America. The time to start practicing preventive health care is the day you are born. You do not take a break because you are in college or starting a new job or a new family. Before you know it, you just had a nice new MI (heart attack) and it is all downhill from there.

This is the one inexcusable thing Obama has done, and he did it to court Republican voters who will probably cross back over in the fall to vote for McCain even if Hillary isn't the nominee. The Harry and Louise II ads were designed to resurrect Hillary hatred, especially in Red States. Republicans who did not much care which of their poor crop of nominees were selected were being encouraged to cross over to vote for Obama as a protest against Hillary. That does not mean that they will vote for Obama this fall and Obama knows it. He is counting upon making up for the loss of all those one time Republican crossover voters with the HIllary regular Democratic voters.

When I hear him say that he is going to draw in bunch of Republicans, I laugh. They will either stay home or they will vote for McCain. There is no way they can dress Obama up to look middle of the road enough to appeal to any hard core Republicans. The Democratic Party had better face the fact that those were anti-Hillary people who did their job and now they are gone. That is one of the reason Obama does so well in the Red States.

If Obama claims differently, he is lying.Yes, I know he is supposed to be the great truth teller, who never lies. But he is just a politician. And he just told the nation that people do not need preventive health care, which this MS, MPH can tell you is a big, crock of shit.

[Deja Q]

36. WIth those costs, it'd be amazing they'd have good credit. I wouldn't blame them for crying...