Lack of health insurance can be risky for students

            Laura Polucha, Downingtown, Pa., senior, is living a dangerous life.  She's not doing drugs or getting drunk every night but living a life without health insurance.

            It's not because she is careless or doesn't want it, it's because she can't afford it.  Polucha's mom is self-employed and also without health insurance, and Polucha doesn't feel she makes enough money to get health insurance on her own.

           She says she is constantly looking over her shoulders at time and refuses to do somewhat dangerous activities like skiing.

           "I really worry about it," said Polucha.  "I've never been sick or gotten hurt, but I know any day could be the day.  I want insurance, but I make like $7.50 an hour."

            Polucha is just one of the many students and young adults that don't have health insurance.   Rising costs as well as difficulty of receiving insurances has caused a large number of students and young adults to be uninsured and vulnerable for large unexpected medical bills.

Uninsured trends

            According to the United States Census, 8,000,000 people between 19 and 24 were uninsured in 2007.  That age group is the highest percentage of uninsured of any age group at 28.1 percent.

Source: U.S. census

            Kansas has a statewide uninsured rate of 12.7 percent, about 2.5 points lower than the national average of 15.3 percent according to U.S. census data.  The uninsured rate of 19 to 24 year olds is 29.4 percent in Kansas, 1.3 points higher than the national average. 

In 2007 Douglas County has the highest uninsured rate of any county in eastern Kansas at 18.8 percent.  The high rate is driven up by its high young adult population, compared to Johnson County and Shawnee County, which have uninsured rates of under 10 percent according to U.S. census data.  Riley County, which is where Manhattan is located, has an uninsured rate of 22.5 percent.

Source: U.S. census

Bankruptcy because of medical debt is also rising.  According to the August 2009 issue of the American Journal of Medicine, 62.1 percent of Bankruptcies were caused by medical issues in 2007, up from 46.2 percent in 2001.

According to the Center for Disease Control, 53 percent said that the reason they didn't have health insurance was because of the cost while 27 percent said it's because they either lost their job or changed jobs recently.  Six percent said the reason was because they recently left school or are ineligible because of their age.

Source: Kaiser/HRET Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Benefits,2008.

In recent years health insurance premiums have increase sharply.  The average annual health insurance premiums have over doubled in the last year for single and family coverage.

            University of Kansas students are eligible for health insurance through the Kansas Board of Regents for $915 annually or $540 for both the fall and spring semesters as long as the student is taking at least six credit hours per semester.  The premiums for a family annually is $7,945.

Tommy's story

            Tommy Royal was 21 years old and a student at Johnson County Community College.  Exhausted with school and work, Tommy wanted to take a semester off and decide what he wanted to do in his life.

            While Tommy was taking his break from school, he became ineligible for his parent's health insurance in January.  Irma and Thomas Royal, Tommy's parents, told him he would need to get insurance through his job.  Tommy agreed, although he wouldn't be eligible for health insurance until October.  .

            "He was one of the healthiest kids I knew," said Irma.  "He had never been sick."  Irma said that in March that Tommy became ill and started complaining of cold-like symptoms.

            "We thought that he just had a cold or sinus problems, but we took him to all kinds of specialist and no one was able to diagnose him," said Irma.  "Finally we took him to Barnes Hospital in St. Louis, and they finally diagnosed him with Lou Gehrig's disease in September.  By that time he couldn't eat or breath on his own.  He had to be put on a respirator on his birthday."

            With hospital bills already piling up, Irma decided that she could not afford the around the clock nurses required to care for Tommy, so she learned how to care for him in her home.  She learned how to administer IVs and use the complicated machines that were helping to keep Tommy alive.  Her and her husband took turns taking shifts watching over Tommy.

            In the end Tommy lost his battle with Lou Gehrig's disease eight months after he was diagnosed and just over a year after he started to show symptoms.  In that time, Tommy racked up about a quarter million dollars in hospital bills.

            Irma didn't have to pay for it all though because of some advice a doctor gave her.  While she said she would sell her house and everything she owned to pay for his bills, she was told by the compassionate doctor not to sign for the bills as the debts would belong to Tommy since he was not a minor.

"I thank that doctor everyday because he said 'since your son was 21, do not sign anything for him since he would be liable for all the medical bills,'" said Irma.  While Irma and Thomas emptied out most of their savings account early on in Tommy's battle, they were not liable for most of the $250,000 of bills that had accumulated.