Week 2 EOC: Health Insurance

For the pass few weeks there have been tons of debates and concerns about the health care laws that will be taken into effect for 2014. “The new healthcare law means that next year everyone in the country will be required to have health insurance or pay a fine. Those with private insurance, however, aren't required to sign up, and those on Medicare or Medicaid will not have to change their coverage.”(1) What is the purpose of the new healthcare law that will come into effect? "The Affordable Care Act (ACA) expands access to coverage to millions of Americans, a goal health plans have long supported, but major provisions will raise costs and disrupt coverage for individuals, families, employers, and Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries."(2) With all of the different emotions and opinions on this subject it is hard to say if making health insurance mandatory is the right thing to do or not. Many will say that it is unconstitutional because it is basically forcing us to buy something that we don’t want. On the other hand we all need health insurance whether we need it right at the moment, a few days from now, or within a few years, it will at least give us a safety blanket if we ever should need it. So with the rise in the concern about health insurance in America, insurance companies are have become very interested in appealing to the younger crowds. Problem is that many young people don't believe that they need health insurance yet because they are so young. How will the ACA help young adults? “Before the President signed the Affordable Care Act into law, many health plans and issuers could remove adult children from their parents' policies because of their age, whether or not they were a student or where they lived. The Affordable Care Act requires plans and issuers that offer dependent coverage to make the coverage available until the adult child reaches the age of 26. Many parents and their children who worried about losing health insurance after they graduated from college no longer have to worry.”(3) In order to appeal to them companies must have deals that will eventually benefit them for when they get older or benefit them in present time, such as if a customer doesn't have to use the coverage for around 3 months they will be credited a certain amount of money back that they pay to be covered by their insurer. This could really help appeal to the younger generations because they will have the safety of being covered if anything should ever happen, and if they don't have to use the insurance they can be credited with a percentage of their money back, to go towards what ever they would like. This approach will be very effective because young adults are just starting out in the world trying to keep steady jobs and pay bills, so if they are able to earn a little cash back it will definitely help them out a lot.

Citations:

1) Understanding What the New Healthcare Law Means for You. Retrieved on October 9, 2013 from http://dailynightly.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/09/25/20695336-understanding-what-the-new-healthcare-law-means-to-you?lite 

2) Affordable Care Act. Retrieved on October 9, 2013 from http://www.ahip.org/Issues/Affordable-Care-Act/ 

3) Young Adults and Affordable Care Act: Protecting Young Adults and Eliminating Burdens on Businesses and Families. Retrieved on October 9, 2013 from http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/faqs/faq-dependentcoverage.html