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kal penn:hey everyone,my name is kal penn. welcome to the whitehouse youth hang out. we've got a great eventfor you guys tonight. we're going to runthrough the finalists for the healthy youngamerica video contest and announce thegrand prizewinner, which is exciting. we also have my formercoworker kyle leirman, who's the president'syouth liaison

in the officeof public engagement. he's going to run throughthe basics of obamacare for us. i know a lot of folkshad questions about that. and we will takeyour direct questions usingthe hashtag #whyouthsummit. so if you have questions ontwitter or on google plus you can #whyouthsummitand we'll get to as many of thoseas we can tonight. all of this of course tonight,

is previewing thewhite house youth summit, which is coming upthis wednesday december 4th, when over 160 youngleaders are heading to the white housein washington, d.c., to talk about the issuesaffecting their generation. so a whole slew of things,obviously things like the affordable care actbut jobs, the economy, you name it they'regoing to discuss it. before we diveinto the video contest

i will hand it over to you kyle. kyle's been working alot on the youth component of the affordable care acton the outreach side. and kyle,i think you're going to give a 60 secondoverview about -- kyle leirman: yes. kal penn:-- the aca, is that right? kyle leirman:thank you, kal. i appreciate it.

and thanks to everyone elsewho's joining today and everyone elsewho is watching us here. again, my name is kyle leirman. i'm the youth liaison in theoffice of public engagement. i'm really excited to haveeveryone on and to be announcing the grand prizewinner for the healthy youngamerica video contest. so just briefly -- and we'llgo into a full aca kind of 101, obamacare 101a little bit later,

but this is an issuethat's incredibly important to the president. it's something hethinks about every day, it's something we're working oneveryday out of the white house. and frankly with reallyan eye on young people, how we can make thislaw work for young people across the country, how we can make sure thatfolks are educated across the countryand informed about the law.

so as kal mentioned,this google -- this youth hangout we havetonight is sort of a preview for the white house youth summitwe're having on wednesday. it's going to be broadcastlive on whitehouse.gov/live from 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. kal mentioned we haveover 160 leaders coming in from across the country, really diverse group offolks from young entrepreneurs to student body presidentsto djs to nonprofit leaders,

really an incrediblearray of folks coming in for a conversation. and both here tonightand on wednesday, we want to have a conversationwith you and we want to make sure you have someinformation, but we really want to hear from you and takeyour questions and make sure we're getting you the answers and informationyou need as well. so we'll get intosome of the more --

the facts on aca a littlebit later but i just wanted to let you guys knowwhat we were here to do tonight and also on wednesday. with that i thinki'm turning it over to tobin at young invincible. tobin. tobin van ostern:yeah, thanks kyle. so we, as kyle mentioned we'rehear to also announce the winner of the healthy youngamerica video contest.

as a little bit of background,we launched this contest a few months ago in partnershipwith the white house and the u.s. departmentof health and human services. and the goal was really to tapeinto the creative talents of all of you young people across thecountry who can make videos, whether funny or sador animate or sing. and we wanted to give you achance to use those talents to tell your peers, tell otheryoung people a little bit more about healthcare law and thebenefits of having health

insurance so that you canget proper healthcare. so we had over 100 videossubmitted, over 400,000 people interactedin the video contest, whether visiting the website,watching videos or voting on the videos through tworounds of voting. and tonight we're downto the top three finalists out of the 100 videos. and i just want to take a momentto thank everyone who submitted a video and especially the topthree folks and thank them for

taking the time to do so, andthey really turned out amazing and showcased exactly whatwe hoped would happen. so i'm going to let each of themactually spend a quick second talking a little bit abouttheir video, how they made it, what they did in it and thenyou can watch the videos, it's in the white houseblog post, afterwards. but i'll let them talk througheach of their videos a little bit, and then kyle will moveon and announce the winners. so first, travis, do you wantto talk a little bit about your

video, what kind of video itwas and what all you did in it? travis grenier: sure. well hi, my name is travis. i submitted a video in the"nobody's invincible" or "you are not invincible"category and basically my video just went through thenarrator being hit by the car and then being rushedto the hospital, being in the hospital andthen eventually i guess dying. and showing thatnobody is invincible

and that you should be covered. kyle leirman:we're glad you're okay travis. [laughter] tobin van ostern:it was fairly convincing,i'm impressed. good work. so then, next, erin,do you want to talk a little bit about your video? the kind of video youmade and why you made it and how you made it.

erin mcdonald:okay, hi, i'm erinmcdonald from chicago, illinois, and i wrote a parodyof the song "price tag" and actually was in the "performa song" portion of the contest. and i guess -- i've always beeninvolved in theater and acting. even in law school i was inthe theater of the relatively talentless, tort for short. so i was alwaysinvolved in musicals, so i decided that wasthe best category for me. and i think i just wanted towrite a song to -- i wanted

to write a parody to an upbeatsong to show how the aca is positively affecting manylives, including mine, so... tobin van ostern:great, and then maggie, do you want to talkabout your video? maggie ditre:yeah, sure. hi my name is maggie ditre. i submitted a video intothe animation category, and i was using a sort oftechnique that i first tried out over the summer while i wasworking at an organization

called consumers foraffordable healthcare in maine. so if anyone from maine iswatching this and they need help learning about the affordablecare act or how that affects them in maine, they shoulddefinitely check out this consumers foraffordable healthcare. but essentially my video wasmade on a whiteboard and -- yeah, it was the secondwhiteboard video i've made and essentially i suspended a camerafrom the ceiling of my dorm room in college and drew on awhiteboard while recording it.

yeah. tobin van ostern:that's great. well -- and just again thank youon behalf of young invincibles, hhs, everyone involved. you know, each of yourvideos were so different and so great for eachof the three categories. and you all receiveda huge number of votes and outpouring of support. so thanks for all you did.

and now over to kal. kal penn:thanks, tobin. these were actuallyreally impressive videos. for those of joiningwho have not had a chance to check them out, you can go to thewhite house google+ page and see them there or go to whitehouse.gov/healthyyoungamerica to check them out.

i know when thiscontest was launched, i saw it on twitter and wasreally curious about kind of the caliber and the types of videosthat folks would enter with and this was really cool. so congrats to all of you, even the folks who arenot joining in person. okay so now i get announce thesecond runner-up, the runner-up, and then the winner. so the second runner-upis travis grenier

"nobody's invincible." congratulations. [applause] travis grenier:thank you. kyle leirman: travis. kal penn:do you want to make a speech? travis grenier:no, i'm all right. i'll let you take it, thanks. kal penn:sure, i'll askthe other two also.

so get ready with a bigsobbing series of remarks. okay the runner-up of thecontest is maggie ditre, "getting the big pictureon affordable healthcare." and the winner, erin mcdonald,"forget about the price tag." congratulations, erin. erin mcdonald:thank you. kal penn:and not a bad singingvoice by the way. erin mcdonald:thanks, i reallyhave nothing to say. kal penn:all right, you guysall did a great job.

and again for folksjoining you can watch the videos on whitehouse.gov/healthyyoungamerica or the white house google+ page. now i'm going to turn it overto somebody who can give us a little more of a thoroughbriefing on obamacare, obamacare 101, and thentake some of your questions about healthcare reformand implementation. so christen linke youngis from the president's domestic policy council,are you there christen?

christen linke young:i am here, hi everybody. kal penn:there you are, hi. travis grenier: hi. christen linke young:so, what i want to dotoday is talk a little bit about the twogroups of people that the affordablecare act helps. the first is people who alreadyhad good health insurance, and the affordable careact does a lot of things to make your coveragestronger and better.

and then i also want to talk about how theaffordable care act helps people who don't haveaccess to health insurance by, for the first time givingthem a way to get and afford comprehensive health insurancethat's really going to be there for them when they need it. so for the 85percent of americans who already have goodhealth insurance, the affordable care acthas really put in place

a series of reforms over thelast three years that are aimed at making your coverage betterand stronger and making that coverage do more to keepyou financially secure. so because of obamacare yourcoverage for the first time has to cover recommended preventiveservices with no cost sharing, that includes things that allof your are going to think about later in your life, like gettingyour mammograms and you colon cancer screenings andit also includes services that young people need likerecommended immunizations

as well as birth control. so that's a big step forwardthat makes sure your coverage is really there for you and you'renot facing financial barriers to getting the coverage, theday-to-day healthcare services that you need to stay healthy. another major benefit of theaffordable care act for people who have insurance isthe end of something called lifetimes limits. before obamacare, about half thepeople with health insurance --

in some states evenmore than that, had what was calleda lifetime limit. so hidden in the fine print oftheir health insurance policy was a provision that said, "ifyou get sick and have a lot of expensive healthcare needs,after the insurance company has spent 1 million dollars yourcoverage will simply run out, it will end or be over." so if you're dealing witha serious medical event, right when you needhealth insurance the most,

you'll find outthat you've run out of health insurance coverage. thanks to obamacare, lifetimelimits have been banned forever in all healthinsurance policies. so 20,000 people a year are nolonger hitting those lifetime caps and instead they havecoverage that's there, that's providing meaningfulsecurity to them. another provision helpingpeople who already have health insurance is something that manyof you are probably familiar

with, the requirement thatinsurance companies keep young people on their familyplan until they turn 26. that gives everybody alittle bit of extra cushion if they go outinto the world, to get a job that providesstable health insurance. and during those yearsthey can remain covered through their parents plan. and i know we hear here everydayabout people who have been able to stay on their parent's planswhen they were diagnosed

with serious illnesses thatwould have left them, you know bankrupt or worse ifthey hadn't been able to do that and had that transition period. so those are just some of thebenefits that the affordable care act is providing rightaway to people who already had health insurance,making that coverage stronger, more secure andbetter for people. but there's anothergroup of people, the 15 percent of americanswho don't have health insurance

and were trappedin a broken, individual healthinsurance market. and for them, january 1,2014 is a brand new day. that's when coverage starts through the healthinsurance marketplace. that's the websiteyou've heard a lot about, healthcare.gov, and atits core the health insurance marketplace is anew way to shop for and afford healthinsurance coverage.

people who don't getcoverage through work can go to the marketplaceand chose from an array of private healthinsurance product. now all those products arecertified to guarantee that they meetcertain standards, they're comprehensiveand they provide real financialsecurity to people. but there's a whole bunchof different options, consumers have about 50different choices on average.

so people can really chose theplan that's right for them. and the big revolution thatcomes along with the health insurance marketplace is makingthat coverage affordable. about 90 percent of peoplewho are currently uninsured, will qualify for some sort offinancial assistance when they go to shop in the marketplace. about 50 percent of youngpeople can get coverage for under $50 a month. that's a huge step forward tomake coverage affordable

and something that justdidn't exist until now. we think about 7 millionpeople are going to shop in the marketplace this year and moreand more in the years to come. so people who previously hadno way to get health insurance now have a way toafford comprehensive, quality health insurancein the years to come. so i could go on andon and do all day, but i think with that i'll stopand hand it back to you guys and we're happy to take questions.

kyle leirman:and just one thingto add because i think it's an important piece here,affordable healthcare act is something that affects youngamericans an enormous amount. and there's so much going on inthe media right now and across the country where folks arejust talking about young people. and what we're trying to do heretonight and what we're trying to do on wednesday is have aconversation amongst young people and make sure that folksare educated and able to talk to their peers and talk to theirfriends and talk to their

neighbors about this. so i think that a lot of youngpeople out there are tired of being talked at and they wantto feel empowered and have that information for themselves. so that's just really whatwe're trying to do here and on wednesday. but i think we're going toturn it back to you kal, i think we've gotsome questions. kal penn:yes you are, thank you kyle.

so we have a bunch ofquestions that are lined up. some are actuallypretty specific, some are tough whichis a good thing. and for those who aremaybe joining late, if you have a question foranyone really on this google hang out you can, ontwitter or on google+ just use the hashtag#whyouthsummit, and we will do our bestto get to all the questions. so -- and christen thankyou for that presentation.

i guess before we open it upto questions from the online audience, do any of our threevideo winners have questions that they want to ask? maggie ditre:sure, i could ask a question. kyle leirman:maggie, jump in. maggie ditre:should i ask? yep. kal penn:yeah, go ahead. maggie ditre:so right, yeah it wasbeen kind of confusing the past few months withsort of the rollout,

what exactly is happening. and so i think someonemight want to know you know, when does an uninsured youngadult need to sign up for coverage without incurringa penalty, i guess? christen linke young:sure, absolutely. as anybody who hasfollowed this debate knows, the website that is thecore of the marketplace, healthcare.gov has definitely-- it had some problems in its first couple of months and folksacross the administration have

been working around theclock to fix healthcare.gov. and we are now happy to reportthat the website is working smoothly for the vastmajority of users. there are still times whenthere's a high volume on the site and people facesome challenges, but for the most part thewebsite is working smoothly. we can accommodate 800,000users a day at this point. and so we really madea lot of progress. and the great news is, is thatthe product that that website is

selling, the health insurancethat's there is something that's good, it's somethingthat people want. we said today thatmore than 700,000 people came to the site just todayto check out what we're selling. and so that's -- the thingthat's available for people in the marketplace is goodand unlike tickle-me-elmo on black friday,we're not going to run out. the health insurance is there. for people that want coveragethat starts on january 1st.

they need to be signed upand have paid their first month premium by december 23rd. so you have, you know aboutthree weeks left to come to healthcare.gov and signup for coverage by december 23 for coverage thatstarts january 1st. the open enrollment period lastsall the way through march 31st. so all the way untilmarch 31st you can come on to the website andsign up for coverage. and anybody who signsup for health insurance

during the openenrollment period will not owe an individualresponsibility penalty. so if you want coverageon january 1st, shop now in thenext three weeks. but people have until march 31to think about their options and buy the plan that'sright for them. maggie ditre:okay, thank you. kal penn:thank you. i beat somebody up on fridayfor a tickle-me-elmo so --

[laugher] any other questions, theother two remaining finalists? travis grenier:yeah, i've got one. kal penn:yeah, go ahead travis. travis grenier:this is actuallyfrom my roommate but i'm going to relay it. we're both under26 and you know, so we're allowed to stay onour parent's health plan. and so basically we don't haveto worry about anything

until we're 26, is that true? christen linke young:that's exactly right. you can stay on your parent'splan no matter what's going on in your life. if you get married,if you have a job, if you stop beinga tax dependant, no matter what happens you canstay on your parent's plan until you turn 26. and then after that if you havea job that has health insurance,

great, get your coveragethere through your job. if you don't have a job that hashealth insurance because you're working for a start-up that'stoo small and isn't offering coverage or maybe you'restarting out on your own as a freelance photographer,no matter what you're doing, if you don't havecoverage through work that's when you can go to thehealth insurance marketplace, after you turn 26 andget your coverage there. travis grenier:okay, so it'safter we turn 26

and not like a coupleweeks prior to turning 26. christen linke young:so you have 60 days from the day that you lose yourparent's coverage -- travis grenier: okay. christen linke young:-- to sign up. so you can go earlierif you want to make sure you don't have any gap, but you have 60 daysfrom the day you lose your prior coverage to sign upat the marketplace.

travis grenier:all right, thank you. kal penn:any other questions? erin mcdonald:okay well -- i meanmy question is more on a tangent, it's not exactly --it's not similar to any of the questions that were asked. do you think that social mediahas helped spread more truths about the affordable care act ordo you think that it's kind of plaguing the publicwith misinformation. i find that it's plaguing thepublic with misinformation.

and if so, how do you combatthat miscommunication, misinformation about theaffordable care act without causing more anger,confusion, and animosity. kyle leirman:kal might have some interestingthoughts on this one. but you know,i think there are definitely positives and negatives. i think it's greatto be able to communicate with folks so quickly, to get information out,to do things like

what we're doing right now. but that leads to both educatingfolks with the facts and misinforming them. so it's our job, frankly todo as much as we possibly can to put the correctinformation out there and work through channelslike google plus and twitter and facebook and instagram. so it is what you make of it andwe're trying to do as much as we possibly can to use socialmedia to get the facts out.

kal penn:yeah kyle. i would -- i mean i wouldagree with that obviously. i think oneof the things that -- whenever i do a chat like this, right if i look at mytwitter feed tonight it will be a bunch of people calling menames and things like that so if i respond,i'll just be like, "dude, you need a hug,"et cetera. but, underneath that is alot of misinformation, right?

and i think there are a lotof distractions particularly in social media,it was tough rollout, there were problemswith the website. those are being fixedin a really rapid way, which is great news. but, i would say, you know,don't let all of that stuff distract us from the fact thatpeople do now have access to health insurance ata largely cheaper rate. got rid of things likepre-existing conditions.

i feel like a lot of that stuffhas been kind of drowned out by the noise on msnbc or foxor cnn or whatever it is. so, the nice advantageto that is doing social media engagement, things like this,talking to your friends. travis, your roommate did notwant to show his or her face, but that's okay,because you can pass along the answer to that question. travis grenier:he's watching, he's watching.

kal penn:he's watching? christen linke young:hi travis's roommate. kal penn:in dispelling some ofthe myths and making sure that folks have the factsto make decisions that are important for theirfamilies, i think. those were good questions. erin, thank youfor that question. and should we move on toquestions from folks who are joining us online?

christen linkeyoung: let's do it. kal penn:okay, so the first question,let's see, where was it? here it is. from michael on google,and this kind of goes along with the questionsthat the three of you asked. how do you convinceyoung people to buy something they don't think they need? christen linke young:well, so, first of all, and i think kyle can talkabout this a little bit more,

but the studies all show thatyoung people do think they need health insurance. people are really aware thatthey are without insurance, one accident or illness awayfrom being absolutely bankrupt. and contrary to a lot of thereporting that we see out there, young people know that. they are smart decision-makersabout their financial future, and they want health insurance. and they'll find whenthey come to the marketplace

that the coverage is goodand that it's affordable. i've said this before,and i'll say it many more times, 50 percent of youngpeople can get coverage for less than $50 a month. that's less thanmost of us pay for our cell phoneor cable bills. this is a reallygood deal for people, and young people aresmart decision-makers, and they know that healthinsurance is a great deal,

and a really soundinvestment in their future. kyle leirman:and just to piggybackoff that, i think you'll see folks,it's just about young people getting educated and thenmaking informed decisions. and since theproduct is so good, and prices have just gone downso much with the opening of the marketplace, i thinkyou'll see like christen said, it's just a matter ofgetting the information, getting educated about it.

people want health care,and they just want it if it's affordable. kal penn:cool, thanks guys. if you do wantto ask a question, it's hashtag whyouthsummit. this one comes fromjennifer wang via twitter, and sort of talks aboutwhat aaron had asked, maybe with alittle more specificity on a particular question,

which is how many youngadults with preexisting conditions will be helped by thenew law starting january 1st? christen linke young: sure. so, there are about17 million young people under 18 who have pre-existingconditions, and another tensof millions more under 25 withpre-existing conditions, i don't know the numberoff the top of my head, but it's a big, scary number.

and some of thosepeople have coverage already through their parents' plan,or through an employer, or through some other source,but for every single person with pre-existing condition,they have the certainty of knowing that if somethingchanges in their life, if they lose thecoverage they have today, there's an option forthat, and they can come to the healthinsurance marketplace and buy affordable coveragethat's going to be comprehensive

and cover the treatmentthat they need. and that -- so there's thesecurity for people who are going to be able to buycoverage for the first time, and that means a lot to us, but there's alsothe security for everybody who has coverage now, of knowing that no matterwhat happens to them, they're not going tohave to face being uninsured with a pre-existing condition.

kal penn:cool, thank you. next question is fromlaura on google plus. and this is something i thinka lot of folks are wondering, even if we'rewell-read, which is, what is going on with all thecancelled insurance policies, and was this due to theaffordable care act? so, for decades, the individualhealth insurance market has been tumultuous, with insurancecompanies changing their

coverage, cancelling plans,moving people between one product and another. and so, one of thethings that happened as we ran up to january 1st, and these changes in thehealth insurance market that were going to bringa whole bunch of new people into the system, and guarantee people accessto good quality coverage, is that wesaw insurance companies

were cancelling old plans thatoffered generally fewer benefits than the new policies thatare offered in the marketplace, so they had fewer benefits,excluding things like pregnancyand mental health, and prescriptiondrugs were excluded from a lot of these plans. so fewer benefits, higherdeductibles, in many states, individual market policies oftenhad a deductible of $10,000, so they didn't even kickin until you had spent

$10,000 on your coverage. and then the third thingthat these policies did that the affordable care actdoesn't do, or doesn't allow, is excluding people'spreexisting conditions. only letting peoplein if they're healthy, or if you let somebody in,but they had asthma as a kid, saying oh, we'll stillgive you health insurance, but not for anything havingto do with your lungs. so insurance companies werecancelling some of these

policies in the runup to january 1st. and what a recently announcedpolicy that the president announced a couple weeks agoallows insurance companies to deal with, if the stateinsurance commissioner allows it, we said insurance companiescan keep offering those plans for one more year as more peopletransition into the marketplace. so the people who have coveragewith those limited benefits, and they want to keepit, then they can. but, we also said that theinsurance companies have

to make really clear to thoseconsumer's what's going on. so they're going tostay in that policy, they're going to need to beaware that their staying in coverage that doesn'tmeet these requirements, and they have the opportunityto get better coverage, something that's going tocover pre-existing conditions. something that's going tocover all those benefits like maternity coverageand prescription drugs. and something that's going tohave generally lower deductibles

and less cost sharing. if they want to move outof that current plan and move into the marketplace, where theycan often qualify for financial assistance to make thatcoverage even more affordable. kal penn:thanks, christen. hey, erin, travis, and maggie, if you guys havefollow-up questions, or if anyone joining ushas follow-up questions, feel free to tweet them,or use google plus

hashtag whyouthsummit. the next question comes fromkat robinson via twitter. how will the aca or affordablecare act address the issue of those not eligible for medicaid,but also not eligible for tax subsidies? that is a good,sophisticated question. so, the affordable care act wasdesigned so that the very lowest income americans couldget medicaid coverage, and those making alittle bit more money,

but still sort of well up intothe middle class are going to get these tax credits, thesetax subsidies to help them buy private insurance product. so then, there came a supremecourt decision in june of 2012 which said to states thatexpanding the medicaid program for those lowest-incomepeople was optional for the state government. and so, what we'veseen since then, is that half of the stateshave said that they're going

to go forward with themedicaid coverage expansion, and the other halfhad said that they're not. and the medicaid expansion isa really good idea for states. the federal governmentis paying 100% of the cost. it's good forbusinesses in the state, because they don't have to deal with the uncompensatedcare costs. it's good for hospitals,and healthcare providers in the state.

and of course, it's good forlow-income uninsured people who have access to healthinsurance for the first time. but in those states that arechoosing not to expand medicaid, there are some people, about5 million people in the states who aren't expanding medicaid, who would have been eligiblefor the medicaid program, but because of thedecision their governor made, they're not going to be ableto enter the medicaid program, and many of them aregoing to remain uninsured.

and that is a tragedy, and it'ssomething that governors can take steps to fix, and i thinkthat we're confident that the vast majority of states aregoing to come into the medicaid program, becauseit is just such a good deal for everybody in the state,and it's the right thing to do for the people who live there. kal penn:this next question isfrom emma on google+, and i think it's the nextfollow-up to the previous question, and emma wantsto know, to buy healthcare,

should there be an incentive,i.e. tax deductible, things like that? so you cut out for a second,but i think the question was how do people buy coverage,how to people access thehealth insurance marketplace? kal penn:sort of. how do you encourage youngpeople to buy healthcare, and is there an incentive? kyle leirman:so, i mean, encouragingyoung people,

as we talked abouta little bit before, young people want health care. if it's affordable, that's really what washolding them back in the past. so the incentiveis just, you know, 50 percent of young folkscan get plans for under $50. the incentive is,you're saving a lot of money, you're protecting yourselfagainst injury, sickness, you know, i actually had kneesurgery that ended up

costing me $250,000when i was 20 years old. if i hadn't hadhealth insurance, i would have been in a hugeamount of debt at that time. so, you're protecting yourselfagainst catastrophic accidents and sickness, and you're gettingit at an affordable price. kal, can we maybe, one thing that might be neatfor folks is just -- calling on tobin here. young invincibles has beendoing some good stuff

around the country educatingfolks about health care. tobin, i don't know if you wantto chime in and tell folks what you're doing, and in additionto the video contest. tobin van ostern:yeah, absolutely. and i would just alsounderscore what you said. you know, we're called younginvincibles as sort of a tongue-in-cheek name overthe fact that it is a myth that young people thinkthey're invincible. and we're out thereon the ground.

we're doing trainings. we're helping peoplesign up for health care. we're answering their questions. and those questions aremuch more around, you know, how do i go about this? how do i determine howmuch it will cost me? how do i determinehow much i can save? young people have been shoppingaround and doing it the same way they buy anything online.

they're going to research theiroptions and decide what makes the most sense to them. so we've been -- in addition tothe video contest and some of our on-the-ground efforts, we'realso launching a new mobile application thatfolks can check out. it's going to let youcalculate your subsidy. you can ask someof these questions. so if you don't get a chanceto get your question answered tonight, you canactually get that question

answered through the app. and we're basically trying toutilize both on-the-ground and online efforts toreach out to young people and help education them. and i think, you know, onequestion for you, and thought -- i know a lot of peopleon the hangout are folks who are going tobe participating in the white houseyouth summit on wednesday, whether that'sin person or online,

and, you know, i'm justcurious what your thoughts are in terms of, whatshould young people be doing to educate their friends, their roommates interms of travis' question, but also justgenerally, you know, how should they betalking about it? how should they begetting the word out? what should they betelling people to do? kyle leirman:well, erin has tosing to all of them,

first things first. maggie has to doa whiteboard for all of them, and travis has to scarethe hell out of all of them. so that's the first thing. so i would take advantage of alot of the content that these guys have put together andmake sure that your friends and your neighborsand colleagues are seeing the stuff that came aboutbecause of the video contest. but really, it's just, you know,tune in to whitehouse.gov/live

on wednesday. check it out. go to whitehouse.gov. there's a ton of information onthe blog and up on the website about health care. there's also, you know,getcovered signs and gifs and things that you can share withyour friends and neighbors. always follow kal penn ontwitter because he's always saying interesting thingsthat are informative.

informative and funny. so always good wayto spread the word. but, you know, it's just amatter of using what's already out there, creating some stuff,getting organized in your communities, talking to yourlocal community health center, finding out where it is, andjust making sure you're getting organized with the folksyou can in your community. kal penn:hey, tobin, i have a follow-upquestion for you, actually. tobin van ostern: yeah.

kal penn:so, i know your organizationis nonpartisan, right? tobin van ostern: yep. kal penn:and so a lot of thequestions, like erin's, about how to get, you know, dispel kind of mythsand all that stuff, you guys work withfolks across the board. can you talk a littlebit about that, particularly as itrelates to, you know, getting the word outabout health care?

or any number of issues,because you guys have a huge jobsinitiative also, right? tobin van ostern:yeah, well, that'sexactly right. i mean, our goal -- we work ona couple different issues around helping young peopleand expanding economic opportunity for them. so we work on healthcare, jobs, and higher ed, as we see those as threeinterconnected issues that impact young peopledisproportionately.

and our goal on something likehealth care is to help young people get insurance. it's as simple as that. we want to make sure they havequality insurance so that when they do have that er trip,which young people are disproportionately likely todo, or they do detect that preexisting condition,that they have options. and we orient all of ourwork from that perspective. so, what we're doing is -- andwhat i would recommend to folks

who are sort of looking to cutthrough -- cut through some of the myths andstatic out there, is -- there's a couple great options. one is you can check out thewebsite and find the plans. it's up and runningbetter than ever. i think, you know,as i mentioned earlier, there are three-quartersof a million people checked it out today, i saw thetweet, which is pretty amazing. and it's a good way to startthat shopping process and then

finish the shopping process. but, in between, thereare other options too. you can call in, but alsoeven in-person assistance. one thing we're doing --and we're partnering with a huge number of groups across thecountry, over a thousand groups, organizations already -- istrying to just go to where young people are and be availableto answer their questions, whether that's, you know,around a school graduation or it's partnering witha local radio dj or it's doing

some other sortof community event. our goal is just togo to where young people are and help answer those questions. and we have a team of organizersthat are all across the country doing that on a dailyand weekly basis. and one of the greatthings about that is, people are -- becausethere is so much of a focus on this issue right now, people are learningabout some of these other

aspects of the law that havealready gone into effect. we had one person whohad recovered from cancer who was at one of our events, interested in learning abouthis options for january 1, and had a series of rejectionletters from insurance companies around hispreexisting condition. and so we were ableto work with them to get them insuranceright away, no delay, because that provision ofthe law was already in effect.

and it's really the storiesand talking to young people who are going to be so immenselyimpacted by access to quality health care that powersus but also lets us sort of ignore the -- what's happeningon the fringes and really go directly to youngpeople, talk to them directly, and help them withtheir insurance options. and so, in additionto healthcare.gov, many of the states are operatingtheir own websites as well.

and for any of those,they're worth checking out, and it's a great wayto browse the plans. it's something that wasnever available before. and we're finding a lot ofenthusiasm and interest from young people atall stages of life. kal penn:awesome, thank you, tobin. we have time, i think, forone or two more questions, and these are actually two-- i'm looking at the list. these are actuallytwo really good ones,

so we'll try to get toboth of them quickly. katherine on google+ is asking,"what will the lasting impacts of obamacare bein the long run?" and i think that's particularlyimportant for a lot of folks who are probably under 30,maybe even under 20, who are joining tonight. christen linke young:sure, so, two things, one policy and onesort of vision. the policy impact isthat we're going to have

a much more saneand rational health care system. we're going to have everybody inthe system, access to coverage, and we're also goingto see lower cost growth over the long term. you've seen -- we've been reallyexcited in recent years to see health care cost growthfinally come under control, and i think we're really goingto be able to sustain that as we have a much more just sane,rational system that gets everybody covered and createsthe right incentives

and the other piece --and i think this is really sort of part of the fabricof what makes us americans, is, we are entering a phase for thefirst time in american history where people can look at theworld and look at their options and not have to fear goingwith that health insurance. for 100 years, americanpresidents have been trying to make this a reality,and president obama finally got it done. he finally got usto the point where,

no matter what'sgoing on in your life, whether you have a job,whether you're starting your own business,whether you lose your job, you're going to have away to provide affordable health insurance for youand for your family. and that's --that's just a fundamental -- fundamentally new thingand a fundamentally amazing development in our culture, taking that fear away fromfamilies and giving them

the security that comeswith always having access to affordable health care coverage. and i know i am so proudto have been a part of that. i think i speak for everybodyin this white house. but that's what we'retrying to do here, and that's -- that's whati think we believe will be the legacy of theaffordable care act. kal penn:cool, thank you, christen. now, last question, fromcarol on google+, she says,

"i'm a young woman; what does the affordablecare act do for me?" christen linke young:oh, boy, that's easy. so there's a lot of thingsthe affordable care act does for young women. the first has to do withpreventive services. so many preventive services thatare important to young women are covered in insuranceplans for the first time. so it includes birth control;it includes cervical cancer

screenings; it includes thevaccines young people need to stay healthy, and a whole bunchof other preventive services that young women are going touse over the next couple of years are covered for freewithout cost sharing in their insurance coverage. second big thing itdoes for young women is, it ends the days of womenbeing charged more than men. women are more likely, a littlebit more likely than men to go to the doctor when theyget sick, and as a result,

insurance companies used tocharge them 50 percent more than men for the exactsame health insurance. that's over. men and women are nowgoing to be able to -- are all going to be charged thesame price for health insurance coverage so women have accessto health insurance at a price that's fair for them. but also, it really expandsaccess to maternity coverage. about 60 percent of theindividual market plans before

the affordable care act didn'tinclude maternity coverage. so if you didn't have a jobthat offered health insurance, you really had no wayto pay for the medical expenses associated with pregnancy. done, over --those days are gone. all the plans on the individualmarket cover maternity care so that you have the servicesthat you need to have a healthy pregnancy and delivera healthy baby. the law is making coveragemore affordable for you.

i'll say it again, 50 percentof young people can get a plan so that's new affordablecoverage for you, and that coverage is going tocover those preventive services, it's not going todiscriminate against women, and it's going to have maternitycare and other benefits the law just provides so muchmore security to young people -- to young people, and to youngwomen in particular -- by making sure that they have access tothe services that they need at a price that'saffordable for them.

kal penn:awesome. thank you. that was our last question. i'm going to turn it backover to you, kyle and christen, for some last remarks. but before i do, a quick plugfor the white house youth summit, which is onwednesday -- 2:00 p.m. eastern, is that right? kyle leirman: yep. kal penn:2:00 p.m. eastern,

and you can watch it livestreamon whitehouse.gov/live for those who can'tattend in person. but, kyle and christen,why don't i turn it over to you to wrap it up. kyle leirman:yeah, thanks so much, kal. and first off, really big thanksto all the folks who did videos across the country --erin, maggie, travis. we really appreciate you guystaking the time to do it. everyone should make sure thatthey go and check out their

stuff on the whitehousegoogle+ page and at whitehouse.gov/healthyyoungamerica. and tobin, young invincibles, you guys have beendoing awesome stuff, so keep it up, and we'relooking forward to having you guys here at thewhite house youth summit on wednesday as well. and i'll just finishby saying kind of what i said in the beginning.

this is an issue that is soimportant to the president and something that hethinks about every day. it's something that we areworking on day in and day out at the white house to try and make,you know, the website better, try and make this -- get theword out across the country. we are doing everything wepossibly can to make sure that this law is implemented welland that folks are feeling the benefits across the country. and it's up to us as youngpeople to kind of take this and

run with it and take advantageof the programs and the policies that we've put forth here, andit's up to us to get educated and to educate our friends andour neighbors and our colleagues and our college students andeveryone that we work with on a daily basisto get the word out. so, looking forward to seeingeveryone and talking to everybody on wednesday. again, kal, you're the man. thanks for doing this.

we appreciate it. and see everybody on wednesday. kal penn: all right. thank you guys so much. congrats to all thewinners, to tobin, everyone at the whitehouse for hosting this. thanks for having me back. very nice to be able to doanother one of these white house engagement things, this time ina t-shirt instead of a suit --

sorry, kyle. kal penn:and hopefully we'lldo one again soon. thanks, everybody. christen linke young:thank you. kyle leirman: thank you.