Would the Health Care Bill Affect College Students?

With the health care bill teetering on the edge of collapse as democrats lose ground in Congress, the question of how it could affect college students and recent graduates may not seem relevant anymore. The content devoted to young adults within the more than 1,900 page bills of the House and Senate might imply that college students should not care at all.

 

“Impacts on young people are not readily apparent, for there are common interests at stake, including 15 percent of the national economy,” said Political Science Professor Andrea Hatcher of the new bill, “And, it’s worth remembering that currents students will not be in the younger generation forever!”

 

However, approximately 30 percent of young adults age 19 to 29 are uninsured, the fastest growing age group in the country at risk of being uninsured. Young adults often lose their health insurance if covered under their parent or guardian’s policy at age 19 or upon graduation from high school or college. After graduation, entry-level jobs typically do not cover health insurance with employee benefits.

 

“One of the provisions, one of the reforms we want is to make sure that your 26- or 27-year-old could, up until that age, could stay on your insurance, so that once they get out of high school and college, they can stay on their parents’ insurance for a few years until they’ve got a more stable job,” Obama said on Friday, January 22.

 

“More controversial is the proposal that all 18-year-olds and over, with few exceptions, must buy or otherwise be covered by health insurance—the so-called ‘mandate’ provision,” Hatcher said. “The logic is that young people will be healthier and not need services for a time, so they would effectively paying the costs for others--like those who otherwise would not be able to secure health insurance because of a pre-existing condition,” she said.

 

Tennessee law currently allows for dependent coverage for children under their parents' health insurance plan up to age 24 provided the child is unmarried and financially dependent on the parents, though every state is different. The new health care bills as they stand now would allow children to stay on their parent’s plans until 25 and 26 in the Senate and Health bills, respectively. Once that maximum age passes, the “individual responsibility” provision in Section 1501 of the Senate’s bill would require individuals to have insurance or else pay a penalty.

 

According to women’s health advocates who lobbied unsuccessfully for legislature, Democrats shied away from women’s issues in the new bill. Neither of the bills currently require insurers to cover all the elements of a standard gynecological check-up, leaving essential care such as pelvic exams, domestic violence screening, counseling about sexually transmitted diseases, and importantly for young adults, the provision of birth control off the list of basic benefits all insurers must cover. However, many insurance plans cover these needs, which if the bill were enacted, would be allowed to remain the same.

 

The House’s Affordable Healthcare for America Act was on November 7, 2009 and the Senate’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act on December 24^th, 2009. Since then, the bills have been going through a joint conference committee in Congress to reconcile the bills’ differences. However, the future of the bill became uncertain after the recent win by Republican Scott Brown filling the late Ted Kennedy’s Massachusetts Senate seat, and ending the Democrats’ filibuster-proof majority.

 

In Obama’s first State of the Union Address on Wednesday, he promised to continue to push for health care reform, though he first mentioned the issue a half hour into the speech. Some Congressmen speak of reconciliation measures, while House speaker Nancy Pelosi say House leaders are considering passing the bill in separate pieces.