Young and healthy could wind up paying higher premiums for ObamaCare, some experts say Young and healthy candidates who sign up for ObamaCare may find themselves paying higher premiums to offset the costs of older, sicker patients, according to some experts. "Premiums are going up because they're allowing people to come into these markets who are already sick," says John Goodman of the National Center for Policy Analysis in Dallas. And they are unable to charge them a higher price because they're sick. Sam Richardson, a health economist at the LBJ School at the University of Texas says "the healthier people are going to have to pay more when that happens." "They will see that their premiums are a lot higher under ObamaCare than they were before ObamaCare," adds Michael Cannon of the Cato Institute. "There are going to be winners and losers when it comes to this law," says Richardson. Cannon adds, "ObamaCare forces young and healthy people to pay higher premiums in order to bring down premiums for older and sicker people who tend to have more money, ironically enough." The problem, though, is that ObamaCare must have young people to pay higher rates to cover the older and sicker people. There is a very fine line between charging enough to cover the sick -- and charging so much that the young decide to sit on the sidelines instead - a move that would destroy the economics of the whole program.