Here's What Millennials Think Obama Should Do to Make Health Care Better for Our Generation
PolicyMic is the voice of our generation, and we’re using our exciting platform to spark meaningful conversation on the issues that matter to young people. PolicyMic's "Open Mic" for health care gave our generation the unique opportunity to share their thoughts, concerns, and ideas on how to educate our generation about the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and suggest ways to make the law work better for us.
Over the last week, our community has submitted hundreds of amazing proposals, ranging from using the internet’s lessons in going viral to inform young people about the ACA to texting information about what the ACA means for us straight to our cell phones. The response has been powerful and inspiring. Thousands of young people shared and voted on their favorite proposals.
Today, we are very excited to announce the three most Mic’d proposals from the competition. These three proposals were runaway favorites in each of their respective categories. Now, we'll be sending them directly to the White House for a personal response, which we will post here on PolicyMic. We are thrilled to offer our community the opportunity to engage with one another and have a chance to speak directly to political leaders in Washington. And, we can’t wait to see how the White House responds.
Finally, on behalf of the entire PolicyMic team, we'd like to thank each and every one of you for your innovative thoughts, ideas, and participation. We are humbled to offer you the platform to shape our generation’s voice in the national discourse. And we're inspired by the ingenuity and creative ideas our generation can bring to the table! We look forward to providing the PolicyMic community with more one-of-a-kind opportunities in the future.
Without further adieu, here are the three most Mic'd proposals in each of our categories:
Local Education
President Obama, unveil a holiday gift: health care price
A recent Kaiser poll notes that uninsured young adults cite cost as the greatest reason not to purchase insurance. Let’s give young adults enough cost information for them to realize that insurance is a great deal.
In healthcare, prices are often hidden and vary, in part, by the insurance plan patients have. Thus, insurance companies are best positioned to tell patients a range of out-of-pocket prices they might pay for certain care.
If young adults view this range of prices alongside the cost of a plan, they would quickly notice that, with insurance, they can save more than $150 on routine checkups and thousands more on some surgeries. This new price information will directly prove insurance is worth more than the $95 exemption fee.
In health care, it is a gift to know how much we pay. Well, it’s the holidays, Mr. President. We want another health care gift, one that we’ve long desired.
National Engagement
Making Poetry: Speak Out, Sign Up, Get Covered.
Let's combine our health stories to create a movement: A national spoken word poetry project. We need an interactive community to encourage millennials to sign up for health insurance; this includes an engaging medium to share ACA information.
The project will gather stories from millennials about their experience with health and insurance. Anyone—ages 18 through 35—can submit a story. The platform is three-fold:
1. Responses are compiled into a spoken word poetry piece and performed at open mic nights across America.
2. A video of the project will feature millennials sharing health experiences, including life without health coverage.
3. Act as a call to action and connect ACA navigators at poetry events with uninsured.
As millennials, we look for media that is inspirational, relatable, and connects us to the world in which we live. By combining ACA information with personal health narratives, the effect has some powerful potential. Will you help join this movement?
Policy Proposals
They want you to think this is complicated. It's really not. Let competition work.
Due to government tampering, there is no market for health insurance. It's currently illegal to:
*Offer customers catastrophic-care health insurance
*Sell health insurance plans across state lines
*Give employees cash to buy plans at the same tax rate as choosing their health insurance for them
Ending the regulatory burden and tax incentives in just these three areas would:
*Give Millennials the ability to buy affordable health insurance that works for them
*Force insurers to actually compete for customers, increasing quality while decreasing price
*End the employer/insurance link, eliminating the incentive for plans which cover routine care
Paying for routine care out of pocket instead of through insurance would allow and incentivize price shopping and competition, decreasing prices and increasing quality. It would also reduce administrative costs and overtreatment.
They want you to think this is complicated. It's really not. Let competition work.
