What's the solution to Obamacare's young person problem?

[Xithras]

9. Yes, because punishing one of your core constituencies is such a great way to win elections.

This is a problem that many predicted from Day 1. By embracing and institutionalizing the private corporate "shared risk" model for health insurance, and then not providing enough money to subsidize EVERYONE, they essentially made the entire thing dependent on middle class young people between the ages of 26 and 35 who make enough money to qualify without subsidies.

Private insurance is based on the idea that many people have to pay more money in premiums than they actually use in medical care, so that the excess can be spent on other people who use more than they pay for. Because the ACA depends so heavily on that narrow group of people, you're essentially telling them "You must buy insurance and waste money that we know you won't use, because it helps other people." Clearly, that message isn't working. Adding an "or we'll sic the IRS on you" to the end of the sentence won't help anything.