Young Adults May Pay Disproportionate Amount for Health Care Reform

Part of the reason for this is that young people, as a group, tend to be healthier. Under the current system, insurance costs can be rated depending on your age and health, which means that the younger and healthier you are, the less you pay for insurance. This is because you are less likely to need medical care.

One of the proposals for "reform" will mandate that insurers can no longer charge different levels for different groups of people (e.g. younger people). So, if you average premiums out among the entire population, younger folks will pay more than they need to, in order to subsidize the cost for older people.

Many young people don't have insurance because they don't think they need it or they don't think they can afford it. The new "reform" rules will require them to purchase insurance (the cheapest of which will cost at least $100 per month) or face a fine of $750 to $950 per year.