Young Adults Biggest Fans of Health Care Reform

Making up 30% of the uninsured population, young adults are the biggest supporters of health reform and the public option, a poll finds—but they're also among the quietest. Only 53% of working young adults qualify for employer-based insurance, and they usually can’t afford to take out their own policies. But experts disagree on how much reform would help the young, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Young people are “going to pay more in the short term because they're going to have to go out and buy health insurance,” says one analyst. But another counters that young adults stand to gain more than they will lose, and points to ideas like continuing kids’ family coverage through age 26 and subsidies to low-income Americans, which could help many young adults—who have been relatively quiet on the issue. "The hyper-partisan spectacles of the town hall meetings are just not an attractive venue for young people," said a Rock the Vote spokesman. (More young adult stories.)