While pundits in Washington, D.C., assess the effect of the Massachusetts Senate outcome on the future of health care reform, college leaders also are focusing on another stumbling block to final action: how the government will treat health plans for 3 million college students.
Many higher education leaders—including associations representing historically Black colleges and universities—say the health bill passed in the U.S. Senate may jeopardize the low-cost health insurance policies available to students on most college campuses.
While many states view these student programs as group health plans, the Senate bill may leave the door open for the federal government to regulate them as health plans for individuals. As a result, colleges say, they no longer would be able to offer the policies at a low cost.
“This would ultimately increase the premium students pay because the policies would be rated and priced with all policies sold in the individual market,” said Molly Corbett Broad, president of the American Council on Education.
“Increased student health insurance premiums would add to the total costs students pay to attend college,” she said, calling the bill “counterproductive” to Congress’ goals to make both college and health care more affordable.
Broad outlined higher education’s concerns in a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and other Capitol Hill leaders. Groups signing on to the letter included the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education and the United Negro College Fund.
As plans that provide shorter-term coverage, student health plans are not like the traditional group health plans offered by employers. Yet the groups say Congress should clarify that these student health plans should not be rated and priced as individual policies.
“We’re trying to avoid a problem,” said Mary Hoban, program office director at the American College Health Association. “Without further clarification, these could be interpreted as individual plans.”
