I don’t know why young people can’t extrapolate. They won’t be young forever.
Dave Winer’s case for young people to care about health insurance and the sad state it’s in.
It’s pretty simple. The definition of health to a young, healthy person is not having to think about health. It’s a “problem” that doesn’t exist in the young mind. It only exists in those who have had health taken from them. Until your health is threatened, the investment is always something you can put off for later. This only rings more true now that the average premium has increased four-fold the increase in wages:
And the fact that the average premium in America will be around $17,000 per year this year:
Combine the cost of health insurance with the fact that the Class of 2010 are entering the market with the highest rates of unemployment in at least a generation, and it’s very easy to see why a 27 year old isn’t willing to spend $17,000 a year on a solution for a problem they don’t have. And you can rest assured mandates won’t help. A $1000 fine will be a much better solution than a $17,000 a year policy.