FoxNews is reporting:
While millions of Americans are watching their individual polices get canceled due to ObamaCare regulations, the new health care rules are also having a major impact on college campuses.
For decades, universities and colleges have offered students bare-bones policies.
But because of the Affordable Care Act, those policies no longer cut it – and universities are forced to decide whether to offer significantly higher-cost plans or cancel coverage altogether.
The new rules affect a broad swath of American schools, especially the small ones.
At Bowie State University in Maryland, the cost of student health insurance policies went from roughly $100 a year to $1,800 a year.
The cancelled plan offered $5,000 worth of medical coverage to students for just $54 per semester. University administrators said an acceptable replacement under the Affordable Care Act would have cost $900 per semester, a 1,500 percent increase.
This is a challenging subject. I bought those "cheap" (as opposed to "inexpensive") college policies for my daughters when they were in college. I knew they were fairly worthless, did not cover much. I bought them for one purpose: when they showed up at the emergency room or clinic, they would not be turned away for lack of insurance. That "cheap" policy was their ticket to the waiting room. I knew I would have to figure out how to pay for their medical care, but at least they were getting it and not getting turned away. But the policies covered almost nothing; had high co-pays; and high deductibles.
They were a scam but we all bought into it. Some of us bought into it because we were ignorant; others bought into it so our students would at least have access. At a cost of $54/semester it was worth it. But anyone who thought $54/semester way going to guarantee them comprehensive medical care would have been in for a colossal shock if they had actually needed it.
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An unedited note to a reader:
ObamaCare will fail in its present form, but one cannot put the genie
back in the bottle. Obama will leave in disgrace, but he will be
vindicated several years (maybe a decade) after he leaves office. It
will take a few years (maybe a decade), but gradually his vision of
ObamaCare will be in place.
ObamaCare will fail in its present form, but one cannot put the genie back in the bottle (repeating).
Consumers
will love the benefits (as military members love Tricare benefits);
providers (hospitals, clinics, and physicians) will love getting paid
for everything (right now they write off about 20% of patients who
cannot pay/don't have insurance) which ObamaCare will pay; and insurers
would go broke (they're holding the bag) but they will be bailed out.
The
"bail out" will be the way the US funds the American Health Service,
exactly like British National Health Service, but the taxpayer money
will be laundered/funneled through the insurance companies. Insurance companies will still be needed, because they will eventually be given permission to write "ultra-gold" policies for the elite and the super-rich.
The transition will be painful and extremely costly but there will be winners.
The
only major thing that needs to be changed: the deductibles will be
lowered, and it's possible they will be lowered based on income.
The
biggest winners will be investors in large corporations. Starting next
year, corporations will transition their health care costs to someone
else. IBM, Time Warner, all the rest have already started.
