Dive Brief:
- As a result of federal healthcare overhaul, numerous colleges and universities are now leaving the student health insurance business.
- Experts disagree on whether the change will have a positive or negative impact on students.
- While many note that marketplace plans are often cheaper for students, others argue that the plans offer less for the money and that more students will be likely to skip health insurance if it isn't wrapped in with their overall education fees.
Dive Insight:
The specific ACA impact on college health insurance is a provision that disallows the use of subsidies to purchase insurance from a college or university, Steven M. Bloom of the American Council on Education told the Associated Press. Plus, there is the provision that allows young adults to remain on their parents' health plans until they turn 26.
Those factors, along with rising costs for student insurance and the expansion of Medicaid in many states, have made student insurance a less lucrative offering.
The Associated Press notes, "As more states expand Medicaid eligibility—as a number of states are now debating—it's likely more colleges will push their students into the marketplace, a development being seen from coast to coast."