One of the many reasons why the Obamacare exchanges are unsustainable is because not enough young and healthy adults are signing up for health insurance. Low risk policyholders are essential to spreading the risk around in an insurance carrier’s risk pool. In North Carolina, less than 30 percent of people   between the ages of 18-34 have enrolled in Obamacare plans offered in the non-group market.

So now the Obama Administration is pushing another social media campaign to get the invincible  holdouts to sign up. They want them to get on the #HealthyAdulting train. This morning’s Wall Street Journal also notes that the IRS will be making the rounds to the uninsured who opted out in prior years:

HHS said Tuesday that the Defense Department will include information about the ACA’s exchanges in a guide given to everyone transitioning out of military service.

The agency previously announced the Internal Revenue Service will for the first time reach out to uninsured people who paid a penalty for not having insurance or claimed they were exempt from the federal requirement that they obtain coverage. Many are young adults. 

I’m pretty confident that the millennial generation understands that having health insurance is important – it’s a risk averse tool that prevents financial ruin in the event of a rare or unforeseen medical catastrophe. But for those millennials who don’t have insurance through their jobs, the exchange plans aren’t affordable for many. Sliding-scale subsidies are distributed to those who qualify based on income, but they greatly tail off if your income exceeds $25,000 a year, making plans not that affordable for people in the early stages of their careers or working multiple jobs.

If the exchange structure modified to allow for insurance carriers to offer true catastrophic plans through healthcare.gov, it’s likely that there would be more of an uptick in #HealthyAdulting.