College Health Plans May Cost 50% More
College health plans…are also expected to become more costly as they accommodate the benefit requirements of the health law. A few schools have had their prices rise so much that they have decided to drop their health plans altogether…Many plans that provide limited coverage are raising their premiums as much as 50 percent to comply with the new law’s requirements for coverage, according to Stephen Beckley, a student insurance consultant and co-organizer of the Lookout Mountain Group, an organization of college health professionals.
Source: Washington Post.
This is precisely the point that should be taught to young people. Many know they can join their parents’ health plan until age 26. What they don’t know if they cannot get a bare-bones plan on the cheap that just meets their needs. College-age kids just getting by will have to buy all the bells & whistles they may not be able to afford and will have to pay community-rated rates far higher than their expected costs. This is not an unintended consequence; rather, is the intention of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
In order to protect people from making stupid decisions, we’ve eliminated the ability of other people to make smart decisions.
Going to college just becomes harder and harder.
I wonder if the college students who run around touting Obama’s “amazing” student loan plan and how much money will be saved realize the expensive consequences of his other policies – like this one.
In the Denver area an individual qualified high deductible health plan with Rx and a nationwide network costs $145 a month for a healthy college age person. The Mines plan referred to in the article costs $1,600, is limited to a metro Denver network. Students who go home for 1/3 of the year might run into problems. It generally does have lower deductible + copays than the individual deductible, but it has a significantly lower lifetime maximum.
So, the Mines plan is reasonable, but not the great deal the article makes it out to be.
The real question is why health insurance should be a condition of an education. If one has a binding budget constraint wouldn’t the education be more important?
@Linda
I’ve always wondered the same. I’ve never had anyone explain why students are required to purchase health insurance by their colleges.
This is more depressing news for those trying to attend college.
Students are required to purchase health insurance so that they will be more inclined to seek preventative care and keep public health concerns at a minimum.
Also @Alexis, I hope you realize that it is likely no coincidence that the PPACA wrapped in student loan reforms… the rates will double in 9 days I think if Republicans don’t cross the party lines. Do you think student voters are going to care about health care costs if the cost of student loans doubles? It’s really quite clever politics, and I don’t expect Mitt Romney–with all that personality he has–to to win over the youth vote based on all the healthcare savings Obamacare denies them.
David,
Public health concerns at colleges are addressed by the vaccines one must get before entry, possibly a TB test which would be provided with our without health insurance, and decent sanitation in the dorms and cafeterias.
Linda I don’t know how long it has been since you were in college, but I doubt preventative care is defined as vaccines in a morass of many diseases for which there is no cure.
Also, health insurance makes expensive care affordable in the albeit unlikely occurrence that a student requires serious treatment. Thus, colleges abate the likelihood that a student will drop out and default on loans becuase of expensive medical bills.