The Affordable Care Act won’t come into full effect until 2014, and already we’ve witnessed a tea party temper tantrum that forced the government to stop operating and a month of glorified Wi-Fi troubles from the online federal Health Insurance Marketplace with few signs of improvement. But ah, look around you. You still recognize the America you knew before, right?
No one knows exactly how the Affordable Care Act will really integrate into the health care system come January, but that is perfectly OK. Sure, ambiguity and fear of the unknown can be scary, but its certainly not worth preemptively burning the country down (ahem, right-wing House Republicans?). Fear of what is beyond a horizon is not an excuse to avoid exploring it, nor is sabotage an appropriate response to uncertainty. Maybe one day Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex) and our very own Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) will realize that their filibuster made them look like a couple of Grinches trying to steal Christmas, only instead of Christmas it was their constituents’ access to “the greatest health care system in the world.” I wonder what kind of insurance the Grinch had, considering his cardiovascular problems.
Not everything is unsure when it comes to the ACA, however. Here is something we know for certain — millions of Americans who previously did not have health care coverage will, including many college students.
Young adults were some of the most uninsured and undercovered groups prior to Obamacare, and young people now stand to gain quite a bit as a result. Many provisions designed to protect young people are effective now. If your parents have coverage, the ACA allows you to stay on your parent’s plan as a dependent until age 26 and requires all plans to carry zero copay and zero deductible birth control coverage. The Marketplace is also home to many “catastrophic” plans, which essentially cover worst case scenarios, geared toward young adults.
Big changes are coming to the U’s Student Health Plan. Currently, the plan is set to max out at $500,000 and doesn’t cover prescriptions at all. As a direct result of the ACA, the maximum cap has been eliminated altogether and there is substantially better prescription coverage. According to Kerry Hill from the Student Health Center, about 3,000 U students are currently enrolled in the plan. When asked what she wishes students knew about health insurance Hill said, “There is a lot I wish all people knew.” But when it comes to students Hill says she finds, “They think they don’t need coverage, but accidents can happen to anybody.”
The Student Health Plan is provided by United Healthcare and costs $1,740 per year, which breaks down to about $150 per month. Open enrollment begins December 2nd and the Health Insurance Marketplace is open now — assuming you don’t get 404’d.