The Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, President Obama's signature health care legislation, this summer following a national debate over the law's ramifications for patients and doctors. With the law's provisions remaining intact after the court's decision, several of its key changes have now been implemented through the University's health insurance plan.
As a result of the law, a notable increase in prescription coverage came into effect last fall for students enrolled in the University's health care insurance plan, said Jeanne Hebert, director of insurance and purchasing services. Yearly outpatient prescription benefits jumped from $2,500 per student in 2010 to $10,000 in 2011, and now total $100,000. By 2014, the plan will have no annual limit on prescription coverage for students enrolled in the program. This change is not likely to have an impact on the cost of covering students, Hebert said. "People often bumped up against $2,500" in their prescription benefits, she said, but it's not likely that a student will reach $100,000 or higher in annual prescription costs.
In addition, the University's health insurance plan will have no annual limit on overall benefits by 2014. The current maximum is $500,000 per injury, illness or accident per year, Hebert said.
Some colleges and universities, lacking funds to upgrade their policies to meet the act's requirements, have dropped their student health plans, according to a June Wall Street Journal article. But Brown only had to make a few changes to comply with the law, Hebert said. Brown's student health insurance "already was a broader plan than a lot of student health plans were," Hebert said, adding that it complied with key components of the law, such as coverage of pre-existing conditions, prior to its implementation.
One requirement under the Affordable Care Act not previously included in Brown's plan is full coverage of contraception as preventative care, a component of the act that has drawn significant media attention since it was signed into law in 2010. Starting this fall, students on Brown's student health insurance plan no longer need a co-payment with a prescription for generic contraceptives, wrote Lynn Dupont, associate director of Health Services, in an email to The Herald.
Of the approximately 3,500 students on the University's student health insurance plan, about 50 percent are graduate or medical students, Hebert said. All students are automatically enrolled in and charged for the University's health plan unless they submit a waiver proving that they have a comparable insurance policy, according to the Insurance and Purchasing Services website. While the fee for enrollment in the insurance plan climbed from $2,348 in 2010 to $2,861 in 2012, this was not a result of the coverage increases mandated by the Affordable Care Act, Hebert said, as the cause was likely medical inflation.
A component of the Affordable Care Act particularly salient to college-age students is the provision that dependents can stay on their parents' employer-based insurance policies until the age of 26. While it has not had any noticeable effect on the number of students enrolled in Brown's plan, Hebert said, the provision could have a broader impact on young adults nationwide, said Kosali Simon, a professor in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University.
The law has already had an impact, allowing many young adults who otherwise would be uninsured to stay on their parents' plans, Simon said. Other economic effects due to the law's provisions may also come in the future. Students have always had more access to health insurance than non-students, she said, so the benefits afforded by the law may encourage graduates to pursue other interests before feeling pressured to land a job with "good fringe benefits," Simon said.
Most Brown students said they had not noticed changes in their own health care as a result of the Affordable Care Act, but some anticipated seeing an effect in the future.
"I'm glad I can stay on my parents' (plan) for now and not have to worry about it," said Edward Tremel '13. "When I do have to worry about it, it will be easier to get."
Additional Reporting by Katie Lamb.
