Although we may not believe that a lack of progress on health care reform would be the only determining factor to keep young voters out of the polls in this year’s mid-term elections, our friend Jesse Singal makes an excellent point about the impact the Millennial generation has at the polls, our overwhelming support for health care reform, and how its failure could exacerbate youth voter apathy:

Here’s something that should make David Axelrod nervous: there are probably more Yankees fans in Massachusetts than there are young people who voted in the Massachusetts Senate special election, which cost the Democrats their filibuster-proof supermajority. Just 15 percent of eligible voters under age 30 participated. The numbers were similarly dismal during two other Republican electoral victories from last fall. In the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial races, just 17 and 19 percent of potential young voters participated, respectively.

This wasn’t just a fluke trifecta of uninspiring elections. It is, rather, part of a nationwide trend toward apathy among Americans under 30. Harvard’s Institute of Politics (IOP), which regularly polls young people on political issues, found last fall that just 24 percent of 18 to 29-year-olds said that they were “politically engaged or politically active,” a 19-point drop from a year earlier. This could mean trouble down the road for a Democratic Party that may have begun taking the youth vote for granted. Young voters, after all, turned out in record numbers for the 2008 election, and if they hadn’t, Obama might not be in the White House. But if Democrats don’t pass health-care reform, youth turnout may plummet.

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President Obama reignited his campaign days as he spoke on many issues burdening our country last night. He put Senate Democrats and Republicans in their place, and had some teeth in his remarks toward the party that has made  their goal of this Congressional session to block every effort of putting this country back on track. However, he said almost 3,500 words before speaking on one of the most pressing issues we are facing today: health care. In my opinion, he should have addressed it earlier in his speech, especially before making it clear that his new focus is jobs creation, as if health care reform is now old news.  He only spent about five minutes talking about health care, and some reform advocates complain that his words were not strong enough and his marching orders not precise enough. But I will give him a bit of a break. I think –when he finally did reach the issue of health care reform– he was clear, concise and to the point. Congress is not stupid (even if some days and for some members, we may beg to differ). Congress knows health care reform needs to pass this year. Our representatives know that if we wait, premiums will continue to rise,  the number of uninsured will reach about 54 million by 2019, and our health expenditures will double.  They know what they have to do. They just needed a firm direction from Obama; one that made clear that health care reform will not be postponed and will not fail after coming this far. And I believe he made that crystal clear:

After nearly a century of trying, we are closer than ever to bringing more security to the lives of so many Americans…By the time I’m finished speaking tonight, more Americans will have lost their health insurance. Millions will lose it this year. Our deficit will grow. Premiums will go up. Patients will be denied the care they need. Small business owners will continue to drop coverage altogether. I will not walk away from these Americans, and neither should the people in this chamber.

The debate over the last several weeks, however, has centered around not only whether to move forward, but how. There are several routes Congress could take to pass some sort of reform legislation. But as our President put it so eloquently last night:

Let’s try common sense.

I believe Congress knows that the smartest way out of the pickle we now find ourselves in with this health care bill is to pass the Senate bill and then pass a “clean up” bill through reconciliation (or in order to guarantee the changes that the House wants, they could pass the “clean up” bill first and then pass the Senate bill) which would improve significant provisions like switching from the Senate’s proposed state-by-state health insurance exchanges to the House’s proposed national health insurance exchange, which would ensure stronger consumer protections when shopping for a health insurance plan. This method has been the most popular among Congressional members thus far, and Speaker Pelosi has hinted that she would have the votes to make it happen.

President Obama even addressed those that are opposing every option of moving forward with health care to come to him with a better alternative:

But if anyone from either party has a better approach that will bring down premiums, bring down the deficit, cover the uninsured, strengthen Medicare for seniors, and stop insurance company abuses, let me know.

The key thing to take away from last night’s speech was not that it seemed as if health care reform is so last year and job creation is now the new focus, but that we need to get health care reform passed now so that we can begin the path to recovery within our health care system (and trust me it will be a long road, but we have to take the first step) and then move on to other equally important issues like unemployment and drowning in the deficit, to name a few. It has been long enough, as Obama stated perfectly:

How long should we wait?  How long should America put its future on hold?

For more on health care and young people, visit www.campusprogress.org/healthcare