Historically, young people have not wielded a large amount of power in the political process. We don’t vote at the same rates as members of other demographics. We don’t have a major organized lobby representing us like other age demographics do in groups like the AARP. The most political persuasion twenty-somethings have probably lies in student issues, but on topics like health care it’s pretty safe to say young voters are not very well represented.

No matter what you think about the current health care debate, there is no doubt that many of the reform proposals being advanced by the Obama administration directly benefit the old at the expense of the young. There are a number of very specific changes advocated by President Obama that should alarm you as a young person. These changes will necessarily raise the cost of health care for young, healthy people so it can be lowered for the old and sick.

Last Wednesday, Obama stated, “Under this plan, it will be against the law for insurance companies to deny you coverage because of a pre-existing condition.” When viewed in the context of health care, this argument might seem pretty reasonable at first. But when you imagine what such a law would do to other insurance industries, the appalling consequences become much more apparent. Imagine if it were illegal for health insurance companies to deny coverage based on pre-existing conditions. Mandating that patients with terminal illnesses be permitted to purchase multimillion-dollar life insurance policies for the same price as everyone else would guarantee that life insurance would quickly become unaffordable.

This supposedly “anti-discriminatory” proposal would harm the young and healthy to benefit the old and sick the same way a provision guaranteeing equal access to fire insurance would benefit those whose homes are already on fire at the expense of those whose homes were not.

Now of course Obama is not without a solution to this potential problem. He realizes “there may be those — especially the young and the healthy — who still want to take the risk and go without coverage,” so he promises to require you to carry health insurance. While there may be benefits to a society in which everyone carries basic health insurance, such a society still demands the young and healthy pay disproportionately for the old and sick.

There is a reason Obama plans to force the young and healthy to purchase health insurance. If he wants to deliver on his promises to provide affordable coverage to everyone, he needs vast numbers of people buying insurance who won’t cost the health care system any money to counterbalance those who pay monthly insurance rates far below the dollar amount of health care they consume every month. These people who pay, but don’t benefit, will overwhelmingly be young people.

There are a number of additional proposed regulations that will negatively affect young people. Obama promises “insurance companies will be required to cover, with no extra charge, routine checkups and preventive care, like mammograms and colonoscopies.” If insurance companies must pay for mammograms and colonoscopies without charging extra, that means everyone is going to be paying for them whether they use them or not.

This means those in the under-40 crowd for whom the National Cancer Institute’s yearly mammogram recommendation doesn’t apply will still be paying for mammograms. Likewise, the American Cancer Society doesn’t recommend colonoscopies until the age of 50 for those without risk factors. President Obama? He recommends paying for both regardless of your age.

There are of course many more nuances of health care reform that cannot be discussed here, and many arguments both in favor and against Obama’s reform proposals. Just know, though, whether or not you support Obama’s health care reform initiatives, as healthy young people Obama will make your health care more expensive once you graduate. You may think the benefits of cheaper health care once you become old and sick will make worthwhile a lifetime of paying more for health insurance. But even if you do, we are still left with older generations benefiting (on our dime) now, while our generation counts on later returns after a lifetime of expense and financial sacrifice. Kind of like how Social Security is going to be there once we retire.

Patrick McEwen ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in nuclear engineering.