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Youth Is Not a Pre-Existing Condition
For most of my life, I have been uninsured.
My dad, who had covered me on his policies, would change jobs often, resulting in huge gaps between different insurance companies. More often than not, traditional doctor worries wouldn't scare me; the question of whether I actually had insurance would.
My story isn't anything original, though.
The barriers to entry for health insurance are so high that many youth simply go without. It's not that we don't want it: we're perfectly aware we're not invincible. We're just priced out of the market. I suppose that's why you never see any "Blue Cross Means Bitchin' Coverage!" ads, targeted at a younger demographic.
A recent study (PDF) by the AFL-CIO found that a whopping 31 percent of young workers are uninsured. Moreover, young blue-collar workers go uninsured 40 percent of the time. The key barrier to entry for healthcare? You guessed it: cost.
How about those lower-priced options, like otherwise-unfortunately-named catastrophic coverage? Usually, they're not so good.
"[Insurance companies] would quote you a ridiculously low price but when you read the fine print, the coverage was very little and the out of pocket expenses were ridiculous," Erinlynn Scott says.
A self-employed dance teacher, Ms. Scott must purchase an unsubsidized policy. Due to medical issues and a pre-existing condition, she has been denied coverage by many insurers and is forced to pay dramatically high premiums for lackluster coverage.
Although Aetna denies many procedures, such as blood work, she knows there is no way around the high monthly fees and uncovered treatments and pays into her policy every month.
So what do we do when something goes really wrong. What if we're in an accident?
According to some EMTs, you could just choose not go to the hospital. Erin Mazursky found that out the hard way.
After a car accident, the EMTs gave her a choice of whether or not she wanted to be brought to the hospital, even though she was badly injured. "I was really confused as to why I wouldn't go to the hospital, considering my condition," Ms. Mazursky said, "and realized later on that the question was posed because they wanted to know if I had healthcare."
If she didn't have healthcare at the time of the accident, the ambulance trip to the hospital and ER visit would have cost her about $2,000.
Ms. Mazursky is currently freelancing and covered by COBRA, but fears for the day when her COBRA coverage runs out. She would "rather go into debt than not have any coverage at all," echoing the sentiments of many, contrary to the common perception of young people as daredevils and "invincibles."
Her fears aren't unfounded: young people find themselves having to walk the tightrope of living on lower incomes without the safety net of coverage all too often. Without reform, this vicious situation shows no signs of stopping.
Sooner or later, the tightrope will shake -- then what do we do?
Detroit: No 'Urban Wasteland'
(From 99problems.org)
"My art is a medicine for the community. You can't heal the land until you heal the minds of the people."-Tyree Guyton
Despite classifications of Detroit as an 'urban wasteland,' I can't help but disagree.
Maybe it's blindness, optimism or stupidity but the concept of a city becoming a wasteland while people live there confounds me.
Nevertheless, countless articles refer to Detroit as a shadow of its former self. A dead zone. This past week, over 9,000 properties were being auctioned off by the city. Many weren't even being picked up. Reuters reports,
"Taken together, the properties seized by tax collectors for arrears and put up for sale last week represented an area the size of New York's Central Park. Total vacant land in Detroit now occupies an area almost the size of Boston, according to a Detroit Free Press estimate."
However, a wasteland is dead. Detroit is not. Against the odds, there remains an energy in the city. The picture above is from the Heidelberg Project: a street filled with vacant houses that were decorated into a large art project by those in the neighborhood. Seeing the city ravaged by the Detroit riots in 1986, Tyree Guyton transformed the ravaged street into a giant art installation, one that is just as important almost 25 years later.
The Heidelberg Project from Laura Kuster on Vimeo.
Tyree Guyton and the Heidelberg Project remain an incredible inspiration for our tough times. By transforming the landscape, Guyton has pushed the greater public to get involved and invest their time and effort in hard hit neighborhoods. I'll let the folks at the Heidelberg Project tell you about that in their own words:
"The Heidelberg Project offers a forum for ideas, a seed of hope, and a bright vision for the future. It's about taking a stand to save forgotten neighborhoods. It's about helping people think outside the box and it's about offering solutions. It's about healing communities through art -- and it's working!"
Safe Sex for the Environment?
(This post originally appeared on 99problems.org.)
Like many kids of the modern age, I've been told to "keep it safe" and use safe sex practices. I can remember the awkward experience of "getting the talk" from my parents, too. Hearing your mom say the word "diaphragm" is just plain weird. Hey, let's face it, nobody wants to get a disease or be confronted with an accidental pregnancy.
But now, there's another reason to play it safe: the environment.
According to a recent report, contraception in all forms is key to preventing climate change. The reasoning behind it is simple: climate change is linked to population growth, but in 40 of the world's poorest countries, women do not have access to birth control. The report states that over 200 million women want to have access to condoms or other methods but can't get them.
It's a good thing to keep in mind next time you're at the drug store, picking up your chosen birth control method. You're not just protecting yourself -- you're protecting our world. And that's an "extended pleasure" we can all get down with.
Green Education for At-Risk Students
(This post originally appeared on 99problems.org.)
During my time in high school, the closest I got to a green education was making a Bonzai tree during a horticulture class, which I clumsily ruined in gym class later that day.
Luckily for kids who are still in high school, a few East Bay high schools in Oakland, CA are leading the pack to green up their learning by instituting green technical education programs.
Ready for the best part? Half of all the students who were admitted are from at-risk communities.
In cooperation with the Berkeley National Laboratory and local organizations such as the Ella Baker Center, Green Academy pilot programs will be instituted at Oakland Technical High School and El Cerrito High School to give students a "school within a school" education about sustainable energy technology as a career path. Gettin' green isn't just going to affect the science classes -- the unified theme is going to be spread to all subject areas, from biology to history to environmental science. And yes, even English literature.
Many of the staff at Berkeley Labs will also be available at these Green Academies for lab tours, talks and demonstrations as well as to provide summer internships for students to help them accelerate their careers in the green field.
These academies are going to spread like crazy: current legislation signed into law by the Governator provides about $42,000 in funding per school, for up to 60 schools across the state. And that's just for the pilot program.
By unifying an environmental worldview with a progressive education, the Green Academy programs are going to do wonders for these students and, consequently, those around them. Low-income communities -- such as those in Oakland, CA -- are extremely under-served in the green movement.
Educating these students will encourage and stimulate these communities economically and empower them to nurture the progressive leaders of tomorrow. Plus, of course, there's that whole do-good-and-sleep-better-by-knowing-you're-helping-the-environment thing.
The End of the "College Industry?"
(This post originally appeared on 99problems.org.)
This semester, I'm not in school. I've almost completed my degree but, like so many other Americans, I'm taking some time off to step out into the "real world" and make the money that will get me through the rest of school. It's not a surprise.
College costs -- both public and private -- have been skyrocketing, often outpacing the cost of living by 200 percent. Basically, for every new dollar earned, college costs go up two.
But colleges aren't the ones making bank here -- the lenders are. And they push so successfully on profit measures that students wind up paying down their debt for decades. But check it: last week a measure just passed in the House to push private companies out of the college loan business for good, expanding the government's direct loan program as well as boosting the Pell Grant.
I'm a big fan of the almighty P.G.; the Pell Grant has saved my ass for the past few years. Without the Pell Grant, I wouldn't be able to afford school at all. But even now, the Pell Grant -- which were my two favorite words in the English Language -- isn't enough.
Even though I won't see the positive effects of this bill during my years as a student, it's a welcome and necessary change to the financing of higher education.
But questions still remain and there are many loose ends.
Is this measure enough? And is it a sustainable way to curb college costs?
Many believe that rather than simply reacting to bad lending practices, we need to proactively get to the root of why college costs are increasing so dramatically and rebuild educational financing from the ground up.
Others believe that these privatized companies are the root of the problem and when they are taken out of the equation, the system will "right itself."
And a few believe that students can live on ramen and beer alone, so screw 'em.
What do you think?
Steve Romain blogs at 99problems.org