WASHINGTON — Julian Senn-Raemont isn’t convinced he needs to buy health insurance when he loses coverage under his dad’s plan in a couple of years — no matter what happens in the policy debate in Washington, or how cheap the plans.
The 24-year-old musician hasn’t known a world without a health care safety net. But he hates being forced by law to get coverage, and doesn’t think he needs it.
‘‘I’m playing the odds,’’ said Senn-Raemont, who lives in Woodstock, Ill. He will go without insurance, he said, until he starts a family or gets a job with benefits. ‘‘I feel comfortable I could get care if I needed it.’’
Advertisement
Senn-Raemont’s outlook could pose a major problem for Republicans who await a delayed vote on a replacement for the Affordable Care Act. Insurers need young and healthy enrollees like him to buy insurance because they keep premiums down for everyone.
The current law attempts to do that by mandating that everyone get coverage. The Republican plan replaces that mandate with penalties for those who let coverage lapse, and aims to entice young adults by allowing insurance companies to sell bare-bones coverage that could be cheaper.
But cheap isn’t free, which turns off people like Senn-Raemont. And other young adults worry that opening the door to these bare-bones plans will make the more comprehensive coverage they know now too expensive or even unavailable.
More flexible pricing could attract young adults, the Congressional Budget Office said in a review of a previous draft of the Senate plan. But other provisions, including cuts to Medicaid, would result in 22 million people losing insurance over the next decade.
All ages and income levels would have higher uninsured rates. For low-income young adults, the Congressional Budget Office said, the uninsured rate would double.
The budget office’s analysis was expected Monday but has been postponed, according to the Senate Budget Committee.
Advertisement
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced late Saturday he was delaying the vote on the bill while Senator John McCain recovers from surgery.
McCain, 80, had a craniotomy — a procedure in which doctors create an opening in the skull — on Friday to remove a blood clot above his left eye, and he is recovering at home in Arizona.
A statement from his office had indicated that he would be out this week, but neurosurgeons not involved with McCain’s surgery said the recovery period for such a procedure was often longer, the New York Times reported.
Language is still being nailed down in the retooled bill, but it includes a proposal from conservative Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, which would let insurers sell plans with minimal coverage, as long as they also sell policies that meet strict coverage requirements set by the Obama-era health care law.
Insurers could deny the slimmer coverage to people with preexisting conditions or charge them more.
Georgetown University health policy researcher Sabrina Corlette said young adults may find the ‘‘Cruz plans’’ more affordable, but they should ‘‘read the fine print.’’
‘‘You may end up with unexpected costs,’’ Corlette said. ‘‘And if, God forbid, you do end up needing better coverage, you will be blocked from that coverage for six months.’’
To encourage continuous coverage, the GOP plan installs a six-month waiting period for anyone with a two-month gap in coverage. The skimpy policies wouldn’t qualify as continuous coverage.
Advertisement
The insurance industry also sharply questioned this approach. In a statement last week, the industry group America’s Health Insurance Plans said the proposal would create an ‘‘un-level playing field’’ that would lead to ‘‘unstable health insurance markets.’’
Other features of the proposal aimed at young adults include allowing them to stay on their parents’ insurance until they turn 26, as they can now, and shifting costs to older enrollees.
‘‘On the whole, the bill is bad for young people,’’ said Jen Mishory, executive director Young Invincibles. ‘‘It is particularly concerning for the most vulnerable young people, those who are low-income and folks with preexisting conditions.’’