Health Insurance: What Teens Should Know

It's always a good sign when your kids observe something quirky or interesting about money in the real world and think enough to ask about it. The challenge is to be quick on your heels and convert what is surely fleeting interest into a teachable moment, no matter how shallow or brief. That's not easy when the subject is health insurance.

I did my best at the doctor's office with my teenage son, Kyle. We were on line to schedule physical therapy sessions for his sports injury. Kyle was evidently taking careful note of the folks ahead of us because afterwards he asked me why different people had such a vastly different set of fees and limits.

I hadn't been paying attention to the others in line and I worried that this moment might pass too quickly. So I scrambled to engage him, asking what had prompted this sudden interest in how to pay for health care. He pointed out that the two patients in front of us were getting essentially the same services as he -- yet one had a $20 co-pay, the other had a $30 co-pay and he had no co-pay. One was restricted to 20 visits the other to 25 visits and he had unlimited visits. What the heck is that all about Dad?

Medical insurance is a tough and boring subject for anyone, and especially so for a teen making a casual observation. So I wanted to offer one or two salient points and not labor the topic. Here's what I came up with: great medical insurance is expensive but worth every penny; and when hard times hit there are smart ways to cut expenses but quitting medical coverage is not one.

I explained that our excellent coverage is employer based and that the value of this benefit, which young people take for granted, is always in the calculus when Dad or Mom switches jobs. I hope he'll remember that when the day comes and he must choose between working for a mature company with good benefits and a startup (or working for himself) with little coverage.

According to The Urban Institute, uninsured people:

·Get half as much care as those who are privately insured, as measured in dollars spent on their care, and they get fewer preventive and screening services.

·Are sicker and more apt to die prematurely. The death risk for certain illnesses for the uninsured is 25% higher than for those who are covered.

·Pay more even when they get less care because they do not benefit from discounted medical prices that are routinely negotiated by private health plans or imposed by public programs.

None of this, of course, was -- or is -- on Kyle's mind. It's my job to put it there, a little at a time when he seems interested.

If you have a question about kids and money, I'll get the answer. Email me at dankadlec@dankadlec.com.

Photo by Dan Zen from Flickr

Dan Kadlec

Daniel J. Kadlec is an author and journalist whose work appears regularly in Time and Money magazines. He is the former editor of Time’s Generations section, which was written and edited for boomers. Kadlec came to Time from USA Today, where he was the creator and author of the daily column Street Talk, which anchored the newspaper's business coverage. He has co-written three books, including, most recently, With Purpose: Going from Success to Significance in Work and Life. He has won a New York Press Club award and a National Headliner Award for columns on the economy and investing.

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