The New York Times has an alarming article about how many young people are handling health insurance. Some feel invincible so they don't buy it. Many others don't buy health insurance because they just can't afford it. Instead these young uninsureds rely on self-diagnosis and leftover prescription drugs borrowed from friends. When they are forced into a hospital the result is often enormous bills they can not afford.
"My first reaction was to start laughing - I just kept saying, 'No way, no way,’" Alanna Boyd, a 28-year-old receptionist, recalled of the $17,398 - including $13 for the use of a television - that she was charged after spending 46 hours in October at Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan with diverticulitis, a digestive illness. "I could have gone to a major university for a year. Instead, I went to the hospital for two days."
In the parlance of the health care industry, Ms. Boyd, whose case remains unresolved, is among the "young invincibles" - people in their 20s who shun insurance either because their age makes them feel invulnerable or because expensive policies are out of reach. Young adults are the nation's largest group of uninsured - there were 13.2 million of them nationally in 2007, or 29 percent, according to the latest figures from the Commonwealth Fund, a nonprofit research group in New York.
For many young people living in New York they can't afford rent, food and health insurance. They have to go without one of the three and the solution is to go with no health insurance.
"For a lot of people, it's a choice between being able to survive in New York and getting health insurance," said Hogan Gorman, an actress who was hit by a car five years ago and chronicled her misadventures in "Hot Cripple," a one-woman show that was a hit at last summer's Fringe Festival. "There was no way that I could pay my rent, buy insurance and eat."
The article says some of the young people are using the wrong drugs as treatment or they are using pain medication instead of solving the problem. The large number of uninsureds is probably why retailers like Wal-Mart, Meijer's and Winn-Dixie are opening walk-in health clinics. There's a large demand out there for treatment but when something serious happens the young uninsureds are going to end up at the hospital, where they will likely get cured but they will also receive large bills they can't afford to pay.
