SEATTLE — The federal health care overhaul is leading some colleges and universities to get out of the health insurance business.
Experts are divided on whether this change will be good or bad for students. Some call it an inevitable result of health care reform and a money-saver for students because insurance in the marketplace is usually cheaper than the college plans. Others worry that more students will go without health insurance because their premiums won’t be folded into the lump sum they pay for school, and they say college health plans offer more coverage for the money than other options.
The main driver of colleges getting out of the insurance business is a provision in the Affordable Care Act that prevents students from using premium tax subsidies to purchase insurance from their college or university, according to Steven M. Bloom, director of federal relations for the American Council on Education, a Washington, D.C., group representing the presidents of U.S. colleges and universities.
Add to that the provision that allows young people to stay on their parent’s health insurance plans until age 26, plus the expansion of Medicaid in some states and the rising cost of student insurance. The result is cheaper health insurance available for students off campus.
But Bloom worries more schools will decide to drop insurance coverage.
“I’ve heard of instances where schools are thinking about it, but they are reluctant, particularly in instances where states declined to expand Medicaid,” Bloom said.
An administrator who managed the process of dropping student health insurance at William Patterson University in Wayne, N.J., said he originally worried about vulnerable students not getting health insurance, but changed his mind after doing more research.
“I actually went into the exchange myself and did a bunch of ‘what ifs’ to see if this was actually a better deal for them. In many cases, it is,” said Stephen Bolyai, the school’s vice president for administration and finance.
The change in New Jersey began with advocacy by community college leaders, who said health insurance was getting so expensive that students couldn’t afford it, Bolyai said.
But Richard Simpson, student health insurance manager at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, contends that student health plans are a better deal for students.
College plans give students more coverage for their money, they usually have lower deductibles, and they are more flexible than some state plans bought on the exchange, said Simpson.
“Student plans provide ‘gold’ or ‘platinum’ level coverage at a ‘bronze’ price,” Simpson said. “We believe that in the vast majority of cases, student insurance is the best option.”
Date: April 5, 2015