The Affordable Care Act places an unknown financial burden on young citizens. Nearly a month after its availability, it is still difficult to take an informed stance on the act.

Oct. 1 passed and there was no cataclysmic destruction. What did happen was the official opening of healthcare.gov, a portal to an insurance exchange for all citizens looking to take advantage of the Affordable Care Act, colloquially known as Obamacare. While many news sources point toward the unfair burden being placed on young citizens, the way everything is set up, it’s pretty hard to see just how painful the costs may be.

Upon signing up on the New York exchange website – which serves to provide the state with specific information about Obamacare – I was able to get a personal view of the burden younger people might face. The system requires you to type in all of your basic information before you can shop for health care options.

After filling out the lines, I nervously clicked the “compare plans” button. After a few seconds, 88 options were displayed. I felt my heart dip a little as I quickly scanned the cost of the health care plans. The lowest monthly price option presented was $156.96 monthly with an annual deductible of $6,350.

Everyone sees things a bit differently based on their specific personal information. There were several different options that had an annual deductible of zero, however, the monthly premium was upward of about $500. Basically, one would either pay a decent amount out of pocket through the deductible before insurance kicked in, or they would pay roughly the same amount through monthly payments.

Considering the limited resources of college students, this seems pretty pricey. With a quick Google search, one can find alternative “plans” outside the entire exchange site for more than 50 percent less. The catch: Many of these plans don’t meet the mandatory amount of coverage, therefore putting you at risk for the tax penalty. In this case, getting the cheapest plan on the exchange and using one of the alternate plans as a supplement might be best.

Fortunately, the majority of undergraduates are under 27, which means that, theoretically, they could be covered under their parents’ plan. This would cut down the costs dramatically. They wouldn’t have to pay anything.

For those without that option, though, this could be a rude awakening in the land of mandatory insurance. There are subsidies available for people who find buying health insurance to be an undue burden. But questions loom: Will these subsidies be enough?

The average price for insurance across the board decreases 29 percent in New York. In other places such as New Mexico, the average monthly price increases by 132 percent, according to the Manhattan Institute’s compiled data, continuously updated since Oct. 1.

Even so, it is still too early to say anything conclusively about the financial burden on younger individuals.

As of now, the Manhattan Institute only has “full” data on 13 of the 50 states. Given the information requiring people to self-report – the general population having no clue about how to even access the exchange and the variation between natural costs of health care in different states – it’s obvious that the data available decreases the accuracy of conclusions.

From a conceptual point of view, it only makes sense that the younger will be paying a lot more. Those under 35 are those less likely to have insurance based on the fact they are less likely to need it. Being forced to pay for something you would not have purchased otherwise is almost like a new tax.

But Obamacare is here for now, and missing data makes it hard to state something one way or the other. But everyone knows someone is going to have to pay. The question is simply. Will it be you?

Fran Walker is a senior finance and accounting major. Her column appears weekly. She can be reached at fwalke01@syr.edu.

Published on October 21, 2013 at 1:24 am