A (Very) Young Voter Explains Her Support for Romney

The conservative antidote to the puerile Lena Dunham:

Would you mind telling us why you choose Romney?

...First of all, I believe in the United States Constitution wholeheartedly. Obama has done many, many things under his term that should have been deemed unconstitutional. He wants to change this country and that’s not what I’m looking for.  

I would consider myself mostly Libertarian. I wanted Ron Paul in the beginning but seeing as he is no longer in the race Romney has my vote. Gary Johnson, not for me. I don’t believe in giving illegal aliens amnesty as Obama and Johnson do. I agree with Romney on his stance with adults being deported but children born here getting the chance to become a citizen.  

Next, I don’t like the Affordable Care Act also commonly known as Obamacare. I think it needs to be repealed immediately because it’s a stepping stone in the process to universal health care. Yes, free health care for everyone is GREAT in ideology. But nations do not thrive with that. Elderly will be denied the care they need. People won’t have the right to either buy into or not buy into health care. Yes, I think it’s foolish for a person to not buy into health insurance but it is their right as an American to do as they please. 

Leading into birth control I don’t think it should be free. There is no reason that an adult woman cannot afford the average hormonal birth control pill (most are never above twenty dollars - mine costs twenty two if I didn’t pay through health insurance coverage) if they prioritize their finances maturely. I certainly don’t believe that employers should provide contraception for their employees. That’s ridiculous to me.  

Aside from those issues, gun laws. I don’t want stricter gun laws. The second amendment was created so we CAN protect ourselves from our government and in self defense against criminals.  

As for jobs Obama is doing terribly. 23 million out of work and he says it’s getting better? I don’t think so. I trust that Romney can get the jobs increasing again. After all he is a businessman. Obama is just a lawyer who knows how to work around the laws to get what he wants.  

On the economy, I think Romney has a great plan. Cut spending. We don’t have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem. In the whole defense on PBS and him wanting to cut it. PBS doesn’t need the subsidies. They make a third of a billion dollars in revenue. They’ll do just fine on their own...

Read the rest.

Young Adults on ObamaCare: Winning The Future?

(hhs.gov)

The number of young (i.e., mostly healthy) adults with health insurance has risen by 3.5 percentage points:

The Department of Health and Human Services is trumpeting new survey results showing a huge increase in the number of young adults with health insurance as sign that [Obamacare] has been a success.

According to a survey conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics, nearly one million adults under the age of 26 gained health insurance in 2011. As a result, the percentage of adults between the ages of 19 and 25 with health insurance rose from 66.1% in 2010 to 69.6 this year.

One of the major provisions of [ObamaCare] allowed young adults to remain on their parents' health insurance program until age 26. That provision went into effect last September.

On the other hand, the percentage adults over the age 26 with health insurance decreased by almost 5 percentage points over the same period. This is a fact that our liberal counterparts at Firedoglake have not missed:

...overall that improvement has not been large enough to make up for the steady loss of insurance coverage due to high unemployment and rising insurance premiums. The percentage of Americans without insurance has continued to climb since the passage of [Obamacare] and is now at 17.4 percent among all Americans.

Let's not forget that the chain reaction of Obamacare, rising insurance premiums and rising unemployment was painfully predictable.

Let's also remember that there's no such thing as a free lunch. One commenter looks at it this way:

Of course more young people are getting health insurance - people like me are paying for it. My insurance went up 17% this year because of the provision in Obama care where young adults, up to the age of 26, can be covered by their parents plan.

This is not merely an unproven anecdotal observation:

The annual Milliman Medical Index (MMI) measures the total cost of healthcare for a typical family of four covered by a preferred provider plan (PPO). The 2011 MMI cost is $19,393, an increase of $1,319, or 7.3% over 2010...

Employees' share of the total cost is at an all-time high, having increased from 36.8% in the first year of the MMI (2005) to 39.7% in 2011.

Unfortunately, young adults who aren't covered by their parents are particularly hard-hit by Obamacare's restriction on age rating of premiums. Mandated “rate compression” forces insurers to overprice coverage for younger individuals.

To summarize, health care costs for families (including young adults) are at an all-time high. And while more young adults now have a health insurance card to carry around, health insurance coverage for adults over the age of 26 has dropped by approximately 5 percentage points.

Is this what "Winning The Future" is supposed to look like?

ADDENDA:

The annual Milliman Medical Index (MMI) measures the total cost of healthcare for a typical family of four covered by a preferred provider plan (PPO). The 2011 MMI cost is $19,393, an increase of $1,319, or 7.3% over 2010:

ANNUAL MEDICAL COSTS FOR FAMILY OF FOUR

Medical costs for employees and employers continue to rise steadily:

MEDICAL COSTS BY SOURCE OF PAYMENT

x-posted

Discussion: Memeorandum

UPDATE: Linked at The Lonely Conservative. Thanks!