Surviving AmericanSurviving
American Medicine

Young adults 18 to 35 years of age, including recent graduates, are faced with an important health care challenge: you may have only

It’s time to get health insurance

a low income (maybe even none), perhaps high student loans, no health conditions or challenges, and you want to know how to  protect the quality of and access to your health care. Since you are not sick, why should you even consider getting health insurance coverage, with you knowing it can be really expensive?

Without health insurance, your access to a hospital, medical testing, and physician visits can be terrible, or demand a very high dollar deposit. The cost of an accident can be astronomical: $10,000 to $250,000 at any moment, forcing many people into immediate bankruptcy. If you do not have a good doctor, you may have no access to preventive health care, protecting your life and the lives of your future children (yes, you have to think about that even now).

Here are my tips for your decisions:

The three most important considerations are

• Never ever go without health insurance! Any care you receive will always be discounted based on your health insurance plan, of any kind.
• Always have health insurance! And never let it lapse, or you may become uninsurable.
• Get and keep health insurance coverage and use it to see a doctor and prevent illness and get any symptoms evaluated! You of course realize that all 3 of these recommendations are the same, but no other tip is more important.

Strongly consider choosing a job that has health insurance coverage, even if it might disappear in 2014 when health exchanges become available (many businesses will switch their employees into these exchanges instead of offering insurance). Consider which of the health plans offered by an employer is best for you (see my book).

If you do not have a job, see if you can stay on your parents’ health insurance as long as possible (at least until age 25, or when you get a job). If that is not possible consider Medicaid (the eligibility varies from state to state).

Consider a high deductible health plan, since your expenses are likely to be low when under 40. You can discuss this for free with a health insurance agent.

Always see a physician at least once a year, and discuss disease prevention and screening to stay as healthy as possible. Honestly discuss your health habits and work to reverse any bad lifestyle practices. See a physician even if you have to pay cash for the visit (but always ask if the doctor has a cash discount you can get).

If you are not able to get any health insurance, consider using a local state or county health clinic to take care of symptoms, or an urgent care facility in a pharmacy (often staffed by a nurse practitioner).

For more information about choosing different health plans, see section 4 Insuring and Financing Your Health Care in my new book Surviving American Medicine. The book also has information about how to find a health insurance agent, and how to contact your state health department.