Earlier this month, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) proposed a new regulation that would bring student health insurance plans up to the standards of the Affordable Care Act, which passed last year. The new rule would affect insurance plans offered at colleges and universities, including the plan at Tufts offered through Aetna, and is a sensible step toward assuring quality care for college students.
The proposed regulation defines student insurance plans as a type of individual health coverage, instead of their current status as either "short−term limited duration insurance" or "blanket" group insurance, neither of which allow for many protections of the Affordable Care Act. The new classification would reconcile student health insurance plans with other individual plans, allowing the federal government to regulate them effectively. This would ensure that students get the same benefits from the health care overhaul as the rest of the country does.
This is an important and welcome change, one that puts necessary protections on students' health care plans. These include ensuring that no monetary limits can be placed on lifetime coverage, an integral part of the Affordable Care Act. It would also prevent arbitrary revocation of coverage based on mistakes in the original application process for insurance. Finally, the regulation would end the exclusion of students under age 19 who have pre−existing conditions. These were important components of last year's health care bill, and it is prudent that they apply to and protect college students as well.
In addition to these new protections, the regulation would provide a common minimum coverage of $100,000, which is essential to student health care. Currently, coverage limits for existing student plans vary widely. According to the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office (GAO), annual coverage limits for college plans range anywhere from $15,000 to $250,000, with the median at $50,000. Tufts' Aetna plan is on the high end, allowing for up to $250,000 of benefits per policy per year, and thus would not be greatly affected by the new rule. Students at other many other universities, however, are not as fortunate. Over 20 percent of plans offered in the student health market have a coverage cap of $100,000 or less, compared with only about 0.2 percent in the individual market.
This wide range leads to discrepancies in student coverage and, in turn, in the quality of student health care. These unfair and unacceptable discrepancies are exactly what the HHS proposal aims to alleviate. The GAO and HHS estimate that between 1.1 and 1.5 million students will be affected by the regulation. The new rule will also increase transparency in the student health market. It will be mandatory for student health insurance providers to disclose to their customers whether or not their plan meets all requirements laid out in the Affordable Care Act. This regulation makes sure those individuals who purchase their health coverage through their college or university will also benefit from the new consumer protections now in the law.
The Affordable Care Act allows for individuals under the age of 26 to stay on their parents' health insurance plans, but for many students, university−provided plans are the only option. Though college−age students are, on average, healthier than the population at large, they should not be discriminated against because of this. The quality of their health care should be on par with the rest of the nation's.
