As we have said before, approximately 30% of Americans between 19 and 29 have no health insurance. As seniors in college we will soon be adults in the real world and faced with challenges that come with adulthood. One challenge is being unable to find employment and therefore living without health insurance coverage. So in realizing the seriousness of this issue and how frightening it can be to live without insurance, we have decided to support this bill and the impact that it will have on our peers.
Because this bill just recently passed in Congress and has become a law, the goal now is to get the word out to parents of children under the age of 26 as well as their employers about the new availability of insurance coverage both for married and unmarried children, regardless of status in school. Not only are parents and employers key stakeholders, but it is also essential for the young people that coverage has now been extended to to know about this bill.
Political Action Plan
-Contact the Virgnina Nurses Association (VNA) about getting the word out on the recent passage of this bill, as well as how and if they think it will impact nurses.
-Contact the Harrisonburg Department of Human Resources about employee benefits and how the state of Virgnia is not allowing employees to add their children to the insurance plan until the next open enrollment period which does not start until July 1, 2011.
-Contact Ed Reams the Vice President of News at WHSV, the local Harrisonburg news station, about any previous pieces done on new healthcare legislation and whether this bill has been mentioned, as well as future pieces in the works about healthcare coverage in the state of Virginia.
-Contact the Business Manager at the JMU Health Center to seek advice about getting information about this bill out to JMU students and parents who seek medical services at the Health Center.
-Create a Facebook group that discusses the impact of this bill on young people, providing a link to this blog and invite all of our Facebook friends to join the group.
Key Stakeholders
-Young people under the age 26
-Parents of children under the age of 26 that provide them insurance.
-Employers: federal, state, local and private that provide insurance to their full-time employees
-Insurance companies in the U.S. that are now required by law to extend coverage to policy holders' children under the age of 26 regardless of marital or school status.
It is excellent news that the Affordable Care Act has recently been passed in Congress and become a law. This bill is so important and extends coverage to vast group of individuals who otherwise would be unable to afford the astronomical cost of health insurance and may have delayed much needed health care. The political action plan described seems well developed and effective. I think the strongest portion of your action plan is your plan to create a Facebook group. Facebook is an excellent social media outlet and a cost effective way to educate a large population of individuals about this bill and raise awareness of the potential benefits. I think this strategy is particularly valuable for reaching out and educating individuals about this bill since a large portion of your major stakeholders are young adults under the age of 26.
ReplyDeleteIt's so great that this bill passed. I had no idea that before this bill passed, you were kicked off of your parents' insurance after age 19. In looking up health insurance coverage, I saw that "the average yearly premium for a school-based plan in the 2007-08 academic year was $850, according to a report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, while the average premium for college-age students on the individual market is about $1,430, according to America's Health Insurance Plans." That would an added cost, considering you're already paying so much for your college education and most likely taking out loans for it.
ReplyDeleteI think contacting the JMU Health Center about getting information on this bill out to parents and their college students is a great idea! They are definitely the ones who should be letting us know about health insurance as a part of public health education. Perhaps for JMU students, they could send out a mass email like how JMU sends out those "Your Right to Know" emails.
Here's the link I looked at regarding health insurance costs: http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Issues/Health-Care/2010/07/28/Health-Insurance-101-College-Kids-Face-Coverage-Choices.aspx