The COVID pandemic has rocked every part of society, and has disproportionately impacted employment, education, and financial stability for millions of young adults. With catastrophic job losses has come losses in health coverage too, at a time when families need it the most. In addition to loss of access to care, the need for mental health care is skyrocketing. The pandemic has increased levels of stress and anxiety among nearly half of all Americans, and young Americans – especially people of color – are feeling even higher rates of stress, anxiety and depression as the world witnessed yet another incident of police brutality when the video of George Floyd’s murder at the hands of a white police officer was released in late May.
To capture the impact of the public health crisis on young people and policy solutions to address that impact, Young Invincibles convened a three-part roundtable series called Advancing Young Adult Health. The series focused on health coverage and access, young adult mental health, and medical debt among young people. Each panel included policy experts, congressional staff, and young people within YI’s network who have experienced issues in accessing health care, and have advocated for change in their communities.
Our first virtual roundtable in the Advancing Young Adult Health series focused on disparities in health coverage among young people, remaining coverage gaps, and how those disparities are being exacerbated during the COVID pandemic. This first panel was held a few weeks after the murder of George Floyd, as protests and demonstrations against police brutality were being held in all 50 states accross the country, and throughout the world. Fittingly, much of the panel focused on how racism has impacted access to health coverage and the health outcomes of people of color.
Our second panel in the Advancing Young Adult Health series focused on mental health, and the crisis among young people who are facing growing need, and a lack of available mental health care. While the COVID pandemic has increased stress and anxiety in nearly every American, an alarming trend in mental health concerns among young people has been building for more than a decade. Rates of anxiety, depression and other mental health issues in young adults have been rapidly growing over the last several years.
Our third and final panel discussion in the Advancing Young Adult Health series focused on medical debt among young people, building nicely off of our first conversation on coverage and access – and lack thereof due to affordability issues – and our second conversation on mental health, which is as we learned, a key driver of medical debt. Medical debt impacts both young people with and without health insurance, and avoidance of necessary medical care for fear of high costs can be extremely dangerous during a public health emergency, when it is imperative that everyone who may need COVID testing and treatment is able to access it, so that they do not continue to spread the virus.