Panic: Young People Still Not Feeling Obamacare

Katie Pavlich | July 26, 2013 12:10 PM

Everyone knows by now that in order for Obamacare to function, even just a little bit, the program needs young and healthy people buying expensive healthcare. The Obama administration is so desperate to get young people signed up, they've enlisted the help of major Hollywood celebrities and are planning to advertise for Obamacare coverage inside porta-potties at concerts, on fly-over banners at the beach and on coffee cups.

But despite how many catchy slogans or fancy celebrities the administration employs to push the legislation, young people still aren't feeling it. Not only do they say they can't afford health insurance, they just aren't making it a personal budget priority. With Obamacare specifically, they'd rather pay a penalty for lack of coverage than sign up for an expensive plan they don't need.

A few things could potentially happen here:

1) Obamacare will start to collapse due to a pool of young healthy people going unfilled.

2) The administration through the Department of Health and Human Services will raise the penalty for not having coverage faster than first anticipated to being higher than the price of insurance. Currently, starting in 2014 the penalty for lack of coverage is $95. In 2015 the penalty jumps to $325 and then in 2016 to $695.

3) More delays will be implemented to make up for the lost cost and lack of young people enrolled.

The bottom line here is this: Obamacare needs young people now and can't wait until after 2016 to get them enrolled. The administration is going to have to do something in order to fix the problem. Regardless of the decisions that are made, young people still won't be able to afford what the administration is selling whether it's a penatly or expensive insurance they don't need.