Are millennials signing up for Obamacare? The Affordable Care Act depends on getting enough healthy young people to buy insurance so they can underwrite the higher health-care costs for older, sicker Americans. That may not be happening, although 31 year-old Madison resident Sean Carroll did sign up recently.
“Health acre coverage shouldn’t cost you an arm and a leg, and I’m thankful that Obamacare is going to help young people like me get more affordable coverage,” Carroll said at a media event Friday at the Dane County Job Center. Carroll conceded that he took his time signing up for coverage. “People my age tend to wait. Maybe it’s procrastination, or that I’m a pretty busy person. I thank that’s the case for most of the people I know.
President Barack Obama has made an appeal to millennials to sign up now that the government healthcare.gov website is functioning well. But a recent Harvard poll finds 57 percent of those ages 18-to-29 disapprove of Obamacare.
Amanda Hall, a 29 year-old public interest attorney who’s been going without insurance the past several years, says it makes sense for young people to get covered. “Not only are we protecting ourselves and our financial future, but we’re also chipping in for someone else who may really be in need of healthcare,” she said.
