It’s Graduation season -a time for celebration. Yet many college graduates this year may be celebrating with a few significant concerns hovering in the back of their minds, such as entering a depleting job market (According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers only 20% of 2009 graduates who have applied for jobs have been hired, compared to 51% in 2007), or facing a crushing burden of student loan debt (The average amount of debt a student graduates with is a hefty $20,000, according to the Project on Student Debt), or the final concern of graduating into the new status of being completely uninsured.
Young adults, ages 19-29, account for the largest and fastest-growing segment of the population without health insurance, according to the CommonWealth Fund. Many young people are dropped from their parents’ policies or public programs when they turn 19 or on the very day they graduate, leaving them out in the cold to find coverage and navigate the confusing private health insurance market on their own. Even when hired into the job market, many young adults are entering into low-income, entry-level, or temporary positions where health benefits may not be offered or are very limited. This is not only a health risk, but it puts immediate financial stress on young adults who are just starting out in the workforce. Low-income young adults and young people of color are hit the hardest.
So, on top of the stress of finding a job and working in low-income or temporary positions just to pay off student debt and bills, young graduates are struggling with the fear of not being covered in a health emergency or they are paying outrageous out-of-pocket costs for prescriptions or health care visits. Graduation has literally become hazardous to your health.
Check out this article Out of College, Out of Coverage for stories from graduating students worried about losing their health insurance:
Stefanie Swanson, 21, of Doylestown, who is graduating from Villanova University, recently caught up on her medical checkups in advance of her graduation – and loss of coverage – later this month. “I won’t be covered by the end of May,” she says. “Hopefully, nothing will happen between now and when I get a job.”
Lateefah Holder, 23, a Temple University senior and theater major, knows firsthand the steep cost of living without insurance. She lost coverage under her parents’ plan three years ago after she became a part-time student. When she got the flu last year, she passed out, hit her head, and was hospitalized with a concussion. She’s graduating this month with $5,000 in medical bills, along with $80,000 in college loans.
“At this age, you never think something is going to happen to you,” says Holder, who is from Bloomfield, N.J., “but you’re wrong.”
The increasing loss of coverage among young people just represents the spreading illness that has become our failing health care system. We can’t let this generation fall through the cracks.
Demand a public health insurance option that will ensure coverage for all.
Check out what young people are doing to impact health care reform with our partner campaign from BusFed, Generation H: Soothing Relief for a Pain in the Ass Health Care System.