Opinion

Youth who buy health insurance - dutiful or duped?

As part of its effort to promote the Affordable Care Act ahead of the enrollment deadline for health coverage in 2014, the Obama administration aggressively campaigned to enroll more "young invincibles," i.e., young people between ages 18 and 35. The importance of young people to the health care law is well documented; the law's success is predicated on a large pool of young, healthy people to subsidize health care costs for seniors and for individuals with pre-existing conditions.

The campaign prominently articulated that it is a civic duty for young people to buy health insurance to ensure that the system works effectively for less healthy subsets of the U.S. population. This idea plays into the notion firmly embedded in American ideology - that of a social contract.

In the past, countless generations have sacrificed and fought costly wars in order to provide prosperity and safeguard freedom for posterity. However, as a 16-year-old, I wonder if the Baby Boomer generation and the politicians in charge are upholding their end of the social contract.

The Boomers have fallen short on their obligations to provide for my generation and now are demanding sacrifices from us.

The behavior of both major political parties is seriously affecting my generation and the future of our nation.

Politicians are inclined to slash discretionary spending, thus disproportionately affecting young people. Automatic federal spending cuts have had a devastating impact on the early-education program Head Start, which was forced to deny services to 57,000 children. Critical job-training programs have been compromised by budget cuts totaling nearly $1 billion since 2010 , affecting the 2.8 million people between ages 16 and 24 who are unemployed.

While the Ryan-Murray budget compromise provided much-needed relief, 70 percent of the budget cuts remain in effect for fiscal years 2014 and 2015. Spending cuts from 2016 remain entirely unchanged.

These cuts are compromising our ability to compete in a globalized world and are harming our health and safety. At the same time, these cuts are insufficient to address the long-term budget deficit. Economist Laurence Kotlikoff estimates that even with the automatic spending cuts, the fiscal gap (future liabilities deducted from future revenues) remains a staggering $200 trillion.

It appears increasingly likely that my generation will be burdened with the cost of the debt to provide entitlements for Boomers, yet will be deprived of many benefits as we age, including the entitlements seniors currently enjoy.

This behavior is antithetical to American values. Before lecturing young people on their civic duties, the generations in power ought to ensure that they live up to their own obligations to America's youth.