Obamacare: Who's Subsidizing Whom?

Much has been made here and elsewhere about how young people are subsidizing older people under the Affordable Care Act. While there is a substantial element of truth to this contention, at least young people generally get to become older people.  So, if the ACA were to last for decades, one could drive a small bit of comfort by viewing the arguable inequity as instead amounting to younger purchasers under the ACA just financing the health care they will receive at subsidized rates as they enter their 50s and beyond. The analogy doesn’t work terribly well because unlike something like a long term life insurance policy in which a similar “subsidy” exists, there is nothing that forces those insured later in life to have insured earlier on.  But at least youth is a “burden” that most of us share.