What's the solution to Obamacare's young person problem? [View all]

[TexasTowelie]

In the past week and a half we’ve gotten about a dozen submissions about the “young person problem” and the Affordable Care Act.

In order for the ACA to succeed, the government and insurers are going to have to find a way to get healthy 18- to 35-year-olds to sign up in large numbers. In fact, Allan Einboden, CEO of Temple-based Scott & White Health Plan {Texas}, laid out the challenge to insurers in a commentary on CNBC.com this week. Einboden writes:

"Regrettably, the many issues with the launch of the federally-facilitated exchange turned the hope of engagement into a complete turn off, especially for young people who are more demanding of a great experience. Only 118,000 individuals have enrolled in Texas and 66 percent of those individuals are over the age of 35. This has set up a negative risk situation.

It is time to collaboratively develop a strategy to engage young, healthy people. We need to use the best young minds who understand social media and networking to develop innovative ways to connect."

Good luck with that.

I spent the last two years working on a university campus with more than 50,000 undergraduate and graduate students. While most of my job entailed working with the media and university administrators, a fair portion of my job involved trying to communicate to students. It’s not a job for the meek, or those who think that a website and an email is going to get the job done.

More at http://www.statesman.com/weblogs/viewpoints/2014/jan/24/search-solutions-obamacares-young-person-problem/ .