Many rural young adults want health insurance but find it unaffordable

Young adults often choose not to buy health insurance, but others need it and can't afford it, according to a commentary from a University of Kentucky student for National Public Radio, via the Appalachian Media Institute.

"When it comes to health care, I do have options — just not good ones," writes Brittany Hunsaker, left. She explains that when she turned 19 she aged out of Kentucky's insurance program for low-income youth, and soon a health condition made her choose between oral surgery and textbooks for the semester; textbooks lost.

"In the rural county where I grew up, it's not just youth who don't have insurance," writes Hunsaker, who is from Whitesburg in Letcher County. "Adults, unemployed or underemployed in minimum wage jobs, are also without coverage." She explains as she gets older she worries her health will keep getting worse, but for now she ignores aches and pains and simply Googles her symptoms to see if they are serious enough to warrant a medical bill.

Graduating from college doesn't seem to offer any more health insurance coverage for Hunsaker; she doesn't have any friends who earned a job with coverage after graduation. "A sick workforce only intensifies an already sick economy," she writes. "It's hard to work when you can't afford eyeglasses for your astigmatism, dental work for your rotting teeth, or medicine for pneumonia. We're constantly being told we are the future of the country, but we're starting out a step behind." (Read more)