Millennials and the ACA: 53/100
19 September, 2016 | Index
Dear Hillary Clinton,
Gerard Mclean here, from Englewood, Ohio, just north of Dayton. This is the fifty-third letter of one hundred I am writing you on health care; one for each day between your nomination and your election. The others can be found in your USPS mailbox or online at 100HRC.com
I see from the polls that you are having trouble attracting Millennials. This does not surprise me as they have spent most of their formative years now being covered under their parents’ health care plan thanks to the ACA. When you don’t know how much something costs, you don’t know what you will lose.
As their parents, we are being crushed not only by the insane cost of our own health insurance, but also by the unfair obligation of having to provide health insurance for our adult children until they are 27-years old. Until they are twenty-seven, they never have to pay a health insurance premium.
When they turn twenty-seven, the costs to them are still going to be relatively low, so they just don’t know what is really at stake.
If your opponent wins, the ACA will get repealed almost immediately and the health insurance corporations will dump anyone over eighteen from family plans. They will offer healthy Millennials coverage at an increased rate but deny coverage for anyone who truly needs it, including their parents who previously provided their coverage. If you win, their parents will still be burdened, but in four years time, Millennials will be paying 100–400% more then they are paying now. Even Millennials get older.
Regardless of the 2016 election result, the status quo is untenable, both for Millennials and for their parents. On day one, we need you to start advocating for UniversalCare, SinglePayer, MedicareForAll. Neither generation can afford four more years of increases under the ACA.
Regards,
Gerard McLean
cc: Sen. Sherrod Brown
53/48
