Just recovering from my latest bout of Obama remorse, I found this.
NYT … Interesting US Demographic Shift. Childhood extended.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/13/us/13generations.html?partner=MYWAY&ei=5065
So Obama made a good step toward correcting this …
Of course, certain other Dopesters may see this as coddling a bunch of lay-abouts and increasing our dependence on the govt. And who can deny it’s socialistic.
To them, I say, ha, ha.
What a bizarre article. Combining the trends of people waiting until older ages to have kids with a prolonged “adolescence” for people in their mid 20s sounds like a disaster since the parents will end up dying before their kids are truly out of the nest (I was born to older parents and my own parents had both died by the time I was 26).
Unless you have a mental or physical disability, you shouldn’t be expecting your parents to do much for you once you are past undergraduate age in my view. Unless you have a viable plan for supporting yourself during (and after!) grad school, maybe you shouldn’t be going. I feel like too many people nowadays just go to grad school to try to hide from the real world a little longer.
I take it you are not in that age bracket, as we’ve known about that for a while.
ETA: Most kids that take advantage of this pay their own way. Being on their parents’ insurance just means it’s cheaper, and they can get a job that doesn’t have insurance to help them become financially independent enough to pay back their loans, as well as get experience to get a job with insurance.
I will deny that allowing young adults to remain on their parents’ insurance policy until 26 is “socialist”…these are policies the parents are paying for in the private sector market, and this legislation simply requires that they be allowed to keep a child on the policy longer (and keep paying premiums for them longer).
This makes perfect sense in a society in which a college education has come to be seen as a basic requirement for financial independence and success.
As the mother of an 18 yr old myself, we both fully expect that he will go to college for at least 4 years, possibly longer, depending upon how much funding he can get (I’m a FT returning student myself) and how much work he will need to do to pay his way through (as I did my first time around).
He has designs on being an English teacher, and to do that, one really needs a Masters plus certification.
The jobs most 18 yr olds with a HS education can get are unlikely to offer health insurance or pay enough for someone to afford it on their own.
This merely acknowledges that, for all intents and purposes, an 18 yr old “child” is likely to remain dependent upon their parents to one degree or another for several years (I’d guess most of the 19-24 yr olds I attend university with still get help with rent and bills from mom and/or dad OR live at home or both).
The old mantra of “18 and out the door, on your own, and learn responsibility and self-sufficiency!” can be counterproductive…it is in the best interests of the individuals involved and society as a whole to do what we can to support young adults in continuing their education and going on to do something other than low-paying, unskilled jobs for life.
My son knows that he is welcome to live at home as long as he is in school AND willing to live as a contributing member of the household. If I HAD health insurance, he’d also be on that policy until he was in a position to get insurance on his own.
Moved from IMHO to MPSIMS.
samclem
The way I got through college in the early 80s and its various trips to Student Health or the doctor was this: My dad paid for the Student Health visits and if I had to go to a private doctor, he got “professional courtesy”–a perk long since dead in the med profession today. My dad is a doctor. My whole growing up health insurance was a non-issue due to this.
Thank GOD for this bit of the health plan today. Next fall I will have 2 kids in college. Carrying them on my health insurance is not very expensive (neither has any chronic condition except nearsightedness), but IF something should happen, that coverage is there. I sleep much better at night knowing that they are covered–without having to “prove” they’re school etc.