But, let's just say that, for whatever reason, Dionne doesn't want to enroll in Medicaid (a woman claiming to be Ashley's mother commented on the Campus Reform article saying Dionne "would rather starve" than go on Medicaid). Okay, fine. But we're not sure what plan she wants to enroll in that would cost her $319 a month, either. According to Kaiser Health's Subsidy Calculator, a nonsmoker in Michigan with no dependents making $14,000 a year (we rounded up) qualifies for a $2,272 tax credit. So while her yearly premium would be $2,552 for the Silver Plan — or $212.67 a month — she'd only have to pay that if she gambled away her tax credit in Vegas. Her post-tax credit premium boils down to $280, or $23.33 a month.

And, just for fun, let's say Dionne's non-Medicaid, non-Silver Plan did cost $319 a month, or $3,828 a year. After her subsidy, the plan would cost $1,556, or about $130 a month. That's more than her current plan, but not even close to $319 a month, the point at which futures are destroyed.

Insurance plans vary by location, and young people will have to pay higher premiums to subsidize the policies of the old, the sick and those with pre-existing conditions (Dionne has three — asthma, ulcers and cerebral palsy). There have also been reports of people with insurance having their plans cancelled, only to be offered plans two to three times more expensive, because insurance prices are rising and their old plans didn't meet the standards of the Affordable Care Act. But to say that the Affordable Care Act will keep young adults barely making minimum wage "from having a future at all," as Dionne put it, with premiums that eat up nearly half their salaries, isn't accurate.

The pro-Obamacare side has its own not-quite-accurate face. Getting young people to sign up for Obamacare is key to the program's survival, which is why last week 21-year-old Chad Henderson became the poster child for the movement when several media outlets reported that he was possibly the first person to sign up for health insurance on the Obamacare exchanges. It then turned out that he hadn't registered and was in fact also a volunteer for President Obama's grassroots movement Organizing for Action. Maybe both sides of the debate should spend a little more time vetting their young spokespeople.

(Screenshot via Kaiser Family Foundation's Subsidy Calculator.)

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.