US uninsurance rate drops to 13.4%, record low

[Mechaman]

The real good numbers in this poll is that the drop is more significant with 18-34 year olds than 35-64 year olds:

Question: Why is the uninsured rate for 25-34 year olds higher than 18-24 year olds? How does their overtaking of the youngs in 2011 in the context of the long-term numbers?

18-25 are often covered by their parents insurance.

Yes, and many people like to act like The New Economy doesn't exist.  Even after the "recovery" many people in their twenties are still living with their parents and working at Starbucks hoping that their law degree will eventually get them a job that will hopefully pay off their student loan debts by the age of 50.
Of course when you have hundreds of thousands in student loan debt and you are earning $9.25/hr and working probably 30 hours a week (if you're lucky) it's going to be hard to justify paying for a decent health insurance plan on top of all of your already large debt unless you have a plan that is already covered by your employer (if you are lucky enough to have a job to begin with and are not relying on selling rocks on ebay or something).

But yet, some of you would rather blame twenty somethings for being cocky youthful assholes who think they are invincible rather than acknowledge the crooked system that has resulted in most Americans having mountains of debt they will be lucky to have paid off by the time they are retired.  I am not blaming the ACA for this as I believe the symptoms of the problem existed long before it.  Actually, ACA, as much as I disagree with the concept of it (making more and more Americans succumb to greedy bloodsucking insurance companies), has done at least a little bit of good in allowing young adults to stay on their parents insurance until the age of 25, expanding the eligibility and funding for Medicaid, making restrictions on what insurance companies can deny coverage on, etc etc.  I'm not going to say that it is a step in the right direction, but it was better than doing nothing.  Hopefully people over the age of 25 will try to take advantage of the exchanges so they aren't forced to bend over and take it from the various companies out there.  However, the problem will continue to persist, regardless of how much percentage of a poor/middle class person's yearly income you are charging for not having the audacity to buy insurance.

So what is the problem?  People are still paying for healthcare.

[Mechaman]

Hopefully people over the age of 26 25 will try to take advantage of the exchanges so they aren't forced to bend over and take it from the various companies out there. 

FTFY

(I'm only being pedantic because I was mixed up on this point for a couple of years.)

Haha thanks!

[Mechaman]

The real good numbers in this poll is that the drop is more significant with 18-34 year olds than 35-64 year olds:

Question: Why is the uninsured rate for 25-34 year olds higher than 18-24 year olds? How does their overtaking of the youngs in 2011 in the context of the long-term numbers?

18-25 are often covered by their parents insurance.

Yes, and many people like to act like The New Economy doesn't exist.  Even after the "recovery" many people in their twenties are still living with their parents and working at Starbucks hoping that their law degree will eventually get them a job that will hopefully pay off their student loan debts by the age of 50.
Of course when you have hundreds of thousands in student loan debt and you are earning $9.25/hr and working probably 30 hours a week (if you're lucky) it's going to be hard to justify paying for a decent health insurance plan on top of all of your already large debt unless you have a plan that is already covered by your employer (if you are lucky enough to have a job to begin with and are not relying on selling rocks on ebay or something).

But yet, some of you would rather blame twenty somethings for being cocky youthful assholes who think they are invincible rather than acknowledge the crooked system that has resulted in most Americans having mountains of debt they will be lucky to have paid off by the time they are retired.  I am not blaming the ACA for this as I believe the symptoms of the problem existed long before it.  Actually, ACA, as much as I disagree with the concept of it (making more and more Americans succumb to greedy bloodsucking insurance companies), has done at least a little bit of good in allowing young adults to stay on their parents insurance until the age of 26, expanding the eligibility and funding for Medicaid, making restrictions on what insurance companies can deny coverage on, etc etc.  I'm not going to say that it is a step in the right direction, but it was better than doing nothing.  Hopefully people over the age of 26 will try to take advantage of the exchanges so they aren't forced to bend over and take it from the various companies out there.  However, the problem will continue to persist, regardless of how much percentage of a poor/middle class person's yearly income you are charging for not having the audacity to buy insurance.

So what is the problem?  People are still paying for healthcare.

Excellent post, Mech! I'd quibble with the last line because someone will ALWAYS "pay" for healthcare, whether through increased taxes for a single-payer system, a Rube Goldberg mix of higher taxes and insurance compnies trading absorbtion of previous non-insurables with pre-existing conditions in exchange for a larger market of youngs buying insurance, or whatever.

Other then that, it belongs in the Good Post thread.

Of course.  I didn't mean that it would be completely free, just that under a nationalized system it wouldn't hurt as much when the costs are done via taxation.

I will say openly that I would love to see taxes on the top earners raised to 60%, at the very least, to help pay for healthcare.

Point is actually, the poor shouldn't pay.