The College Guide’s focus on health care reform has mostly been about the reconciliation process, which will merge student loan reform into the bill.
But then, as Jennifer Epstein points out in an article in Inside Higher Ed, actual health care matters for college students, too:
There are several tangible ways in which the legislation will benefit students, campus health centers and medical schools more immediately.
…As of late September, young adults will be eligible to be covered by their parents’ insurance plans through age 26. For undergraduate and graduate students who would otherwise have aged off their parents’ plans, it’s “one less thing to worry about as they try to make their way through school,” said Ari A. Matusiak, cofounder of Young Invincibles, which represents young adults who favor health care reform.
Employer-based plans are in many instances more robust than campus-based plans, said Larry McNeely, health care reform advocate for U.S. Public Interest Research Group. “Students will be able to just link into their parents’ health plan, oftentimes with much superior benefits.”
The changes are likely to be most helpful to recent college graduates, who tend to work in internships. With the option to stay on parents’ insurance until they turn 26, they can at least now have health coverage.
Health care reform also has the potential to change medical education: “Allopathic and osteopathic medical schools are on longstanding campaigns to expand their enrollments,” according to the article.
