Photo by Tanya Paperny, Campus Progress

 

On Thursday, June 25, thousands of people gathered at the Upper Senate Park in Washington, DC to rally for health care reform. Speakers including former DNC Chairman Howard Dean and actress Edie Falco, who played Carmela on HBO’s The Sopranos, gave inspirational speeches and led the crowd into chants that echoed over the Capitol.

The national rally took place in the early afternoon and was followed by lobby meetings and town hall meetings with constituents who traveled by the bus-load from around the country to demand health care for all from their members of Congress. The rally was organized by Health Care for America NOW (HCAN), a national grassroots campaign of more than 1,000 organizations representing 30 million people.

Among the unions, community organizers, and national and local advocacy groups, Campus Progress stood strong to represent young people and ensure that young people have a voice in the health care debate. We spoke to several young people about their personal stories with the current health care system and distributed facts about how young people are being affected by the health care crisis:

 

Young Adults Suffer from the Health Care Crisis More Than Most

• Young adults between the ages of 19 and 34 represent over one-third (34.7 %) of the entire uninsured population.

• Over half (54 %) of all young adults have low incomes (below 200% of the federal poverty level, $21,660 for a single person in 2009). Low-income young adults are more than 2.5 times as likely to be uninsured as higher income young adults.

Young Workers Get Screwed by the System

• 56 % of uninsured young adults between the ages of 19 and 29 are full-time workers.

• Over half of uninsured young adults between the ages of 19 and 29 (55 %) work for small businesses which are less likely to offer health coverage than larger firms.

• Young adult workers are half as likely to be covered by their employer as older workers.

Young Adults are Hit Hard by Skyrocketing Healthcare Costs

• Two-thirds (66 %) of uninsured young adults between the ages of 19 and 29 went without necessary care because of costs in 2007.

• Half (49 %) of uninsured young adults ages 19-29 and more than one-third (35 %) of all young adults report having medical bill problems.

 

Campus Progress joined Generational Alliance partners and Choice USA at the rally. Audriannah Levine, a student from Mills College involved with Choice USA, shared her story of battling Crohn’s Disease without health insurance and minimal income.

 

 

“I currently do not have health care at the moment, and neither [does] my family. We [have] a household income of under $20,000 a year as our combined income, so there’s no way for us to pay for health care whatsoever,” Audriannah explained. “It’s a daily battle for us to go about our day without having flare-ups and needing medication.”

 

Check out the video coverage Campus Progress captured at the event, including an interview with Audriannah:

 

The convening of thousands like her on the Hill yesterday is proof that Audriannah is not alone in her fight against our broken health care system. Campus Progress joins HCAN and all its members in asking Congress for a public plan that will force the health insurance companies to compete on equal footing, and will provide health care for all. We will not stand for the “co-op” or “trigger” compromises that weaken and fracture a true public plan; this system is broken, and it needs to be fixed…now!

For more information on the ongoing health care debate, visit Campus Progress’ blog Funding Our Future.