Sick Without A Safety Net

By Solana Pyne, Village Voice. Posted August 20, 2004.

Access to the American health care system is a luxury item for young adults.

If they're not outright poor as a class, young adults in this country are at least very, very broke. The average collegian graduates with more than $20,000 in debt, headed for a job market where real hourly wages have kept pace with neither inflation nor the cost of living. Young adults are broke in part because of their unprecedented schooling – in the latest census figures, 28 percent of those between 25 and 29 reported holding a bachelor's degree – which promised to pluck them away from the constellation of problems plaguing America's underclass, whether it was trouble with housing or inadequate medical care. (More)