Hey here is some fun news – young adults aged 19 to 24 form the largest group of Americans without health insurance. Some of those people went to Wesleyan!
The New York Times used Josh Pavlacky ’08 , co-founder of the Appendix art/project space in Portland, as a cautionary tale of such a young person who graduated college hoping that youth would keep them healthy, only to learn otherwise the hard way:
As a graduate of a top liberal arts college, Wesleyan University, with a bachelor’s degree in studio art, [Pavlacky] expected to find nonprofit work. Instead he is working as a dishwasher and running an art gallery out of his garage in Portland, Ore.While in college, he was covered by the policy of his father, who works security at Costco. But now, he says, that coverage has ended and his family cannot afford to help him buy something else.
So when Mr. Pavlacky got hit by a car while biking in May, he decided that a hospital visit was out of the question. Instead of seeking treatment, he had friends bring him prescription painkillers they had left over from procedures like having their wisdom teeth removed.
“I was flipped over and fell on my back,” he said. “I had a bruise all down my leg and couldn’t walk for three days.”
Mr. Pavlacky says he supports the president’s health care overhaul, and wishes Mr. Obama had pushed a public plan forward himself instead of turning the negotiations over to Congress and “bringing everybody into the tent.”
Ouch. Maybe America could use universal health care or something?
NY Times: Young Adults Swelling Ranks of Uninsured
CSS alumnus Jonathan Bush ’93 has seen the health care industry from all angles, first as an EMT and Army medic, then as a consultant, and now as one of the most successful social entrepreneurs in the industry. He believes that the health care field is broken, and he is using his Wesleyan education to fix it.
This just in from 
