<p>I'll just jump right into it. I'll be 26 years old when I start my undergrad. While my GI bill pays for a lot of things, health care is just not one of them. And because of my age, I won't be able to be on my parents plans. My school's student health plan is not and (based on my phone call today,) will not be in compliance with the PPACA. The student health office even strongly implied that student health plans will be going away soon because they can't afford to offer a plan that is in compliance with obamacare because of the no annual limit and no denial of coverage for preexisting conditions mandates. </p>
<p>This means that I'll have to go shopping for my own individual plan to be in compliance with the law. (Not that I would ever let myself be uninsured in the first place.) What I found was that trying to buy an individual plan (no corporate discounts, etc) even as a 25-ish year old with no dependents and no preexisting conditions, the prices are so high that I'm not sure I can afford to go to school full time and simultaneously be in compliance with the law. </p>
<p>What are you/your students doing/plan to do in regards to healthcare?</p>
<p>Well my daughter will be entering a field in another five years ( needs masters right away) where there are very few salaried jobs- most of the jobs are for contractors. Hopefully this will change because I would hate to think that when she turns 26 her whole paycheck will be spent on insurance. She is only a freshman now so hopefully things will get better.</p>
<p>Just wanted to jump back in here and relay that after much digging, and a couple phone calls, I’ve learned that due to the phrasing of OBAMACARE, and the fact that my school requires you to waive out of the student health plan (vice opting into it,) my student health plan will be covered under my GI Bill as a mandatory fee. Which makes my health plan free to me! <em>jumps for joy</em></p>
<p>Break the law and pay the penalty. The law is a hot mess and is t going to last long in its current construct anyway. Under the law, the best option is to pay the penalty. The penalty will go up each year until you can’t afford that either but maybe you’ll have a job by then. Doubt it, but maybe.</p>
<p>Among the many hats I wear in my job is the I’m-in-charge-of-the-student-insurance-plan hat. We use a company that specializes in student insurance, and the plan is, as they tell me it must be, PPACA-compliant. An annual wellness exam, annual female exam, and all preventive care requirements are included (at no extra cost) in the annual fee. The deductible is high (and per-event or condition), and there is a copay after the deductible, and there is no Rx … but it’s PPACA-compliant. Not sure how a student plan can get away with not being compliant, since it will be “new” for the student. Student insurance is now considered an individual, rather than a group, plan … so if the student begins the plan now, the plan must be compliant.</p>
<p>Now, I can’t tell you what will happen for plans beginning after January 1, 2014, though. Our insurer says they are still trying to figure that out — they aligned with Nationwide recently because they needed the expertise necessary to figure out what the changes in effect 1/1/14 really mean.</p>
<p>That does not work if you have a medical emergency that costs a lot and does not give you time to do what you are saying (e.g. you are walking across the street, get hit by a car, and are taken to the hospital in an ambulance for emergency surgery).</p>
<p>OP, the exchanges won’t be up and running until October at the earliest. Once they are, the cost structure will be different. I’d suggest checking then.</p>
<p>Let the hospital eat the cost. They are not going to take your house or car if you don’t pay. Just like now and a hospital won’t even be set up for private pay in cash from an individual. They struggle with it now.</p>