Hopefully everyone has been enjoying the wonderful weather and March Madness season and is finding themselves well. On behalf of the Japanese American Citizen’s League and JACL Health Benefits, we would like to ask for your help in spreading the word about a JACL campaign that directly affects folks aged 18 to 29. While congress may have just passed the healthcare bill, it’s not entirely clear how everything is going to shape up. The Active Choice Campaign seeks to engage youth and young adults in the dialogue about health care and insurance, and introduce people to a new health insurance option for JACL members.
For JACL members, the Blue Shield Active Choice PPO is one of the most inexpensive individual health insurance options on the market, starting at $110 a month for Northern California residents.
- Between 2001 and 2003, one-third of college graduates had a time uninsured in the year following college graduation.
- Two-thirds of uninsured young adults had cost-related access problems (including failure to see a doctor for a medical problem, fill a prescription, see a specialist when needed, or attend a medical test, treatment or follow up) in the past year, compared with one-third of those who were insured all year.
- Half of young adults with any time uninsured had medical bill or debt problems, twice that of young adults who were insured all year. Of those who are uninsured, twenty-four percent had to change their way of life to pay medical bills.
JACL Health Benefits and Blue Shield of California are offering the Active Choice Plan as a community service to the members of the JACL, so there are no brokers or fees collected by JACL Health Benefits. With this plan, the options of culturally-sensitive customer service in English, Japanese, and Chinese are available.
Please take a moment to become a fan of the campaign on facebook (search “JACL Active Choice Campaign“) or follow us on twitter (@jaclhealth) to stay informed and voice your opinions on the current healthcare situation.