This article is a repost from the CollegePlus blog. Taryn DiMartile does a wonderful job of reminding us of the reality we are facing as a country and as students. Taryn works and writes for CollegePlus, to read her original article, visit here.
Please be in prayer for our nation as we celebrate Independence Day this Wednesday.
I know you all know (doesn’t everyone know?) that student debt is a problem of tsunami proportions. And it’s a problem that doesn’t seem to have a solution coming anytime soon. What you may not know is, with today’s ruling on Obamacare, college students have another wave of expenses hitting them – health care costs.
According to a recent Forbes article, costs of college student’s health care could rise 1,112%. Yes, 1,112 percent.
Why could costs go up 1,112%?
Many colleges offer their students health insurance plans with very limited benefits that cover expenses to a specific “capped” amount that is usually pretty low. Most college students are young adults in great health (well, beside the massive amounts of caffeine they consume), so this is normally not a problem and the result is low premium costs for the students: usually only a couple hundred dollars a year.
However, with ObamaCare, insurance companies will be required to substantially raise the coverage “cap” (whether or not people want to pay for that much more coverage) for 2013-2014 and beginning 2015, insurance companies will not be allowed to sell health insurance plans with a “cap” at all. This is what will cause insurance costs to go through the roof.
The cost reality
Curtis Johnson is a student at a small, private Christian college in Florida. Last year, the health insurance through his school cost him $600. This coming year? $1,130. Considering his tuition is already $25,000 a year, the additional cost is unaffordable for him and he has to look into alternatives. However, he’s one of the lucky ones!
Students at Lenoir-Rhyne University in Hickory, N.C. paid $245 for a year of health insurance last school year. Next year, they’ll be paying over $2,500. And that’s on top of tuition, room, board and everything else that comes along with being a college student.
Another problem facing students
To make matters worse, because of the rules, regulations and penalties now placed on businesses regarding health care for their employees, finding summer or seasonal jobs (a main source of income for college students) will become harder, making the increased cost even more difficult to bear.
Whether or not all the rules and regulations will indeed stay in place remains to be seen, but the future does not look as bright as it once was for college grads. And with the already declining morale and financial situation of today’s college students, things are looking bleak for those who were told they could do anything they wanted to at a high school commencement speech not too long ago.