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The School of Hard Knocks

Washington, Apr 20 -

Remember President Obama’s pledge that if you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep it under ObamaCare? That seems to be a pretty hollow promise when you consider the new health care law will actually start dismantling the health care plans colleges and universities offer to their students. Students and their families will have to pay the price for this latest lesson in how a government takeover really works.

• “‘The ability of colleges and universities to provide appropriate access to health care is a major concern’ under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that was signed into law last month, [Lookout Mountain Group] said on Wednesday in a news release.”

• “Some comprehensive college-sponsored health plans essentially operate as large employer-sponsored plans. … But the new law may be interpreted to treat college-sponsored plans as individual plans. In that case, institutions could not uphold those cost-cutting strategies. Nor could they limit enrollment to students.”

• “If good student plans can't continue to exist, Mr. Beckley said, many students will resort to high-deductible private plans, and institutions will struggle to fill the gap with campus services. International students may have a particularly hard time finding coverage beyond their college health centers, he said.”

• “But student plans with, for example, low caps on prescription-drug coverage or per-illness claims will become illegal under the new law, Mr. Mitchell said. So, too, will those with exclusions for injuries related to alcohol use or suicide attempts. ‘It absolutely does wipe them out,’ he said.”