Student Health Plan Enrollees to Gain New Protections Under Affordable Care Act
<p>This week the Department of Health and Human Services issued proposed regulations that clarify how the Affordable Care Act applies to student health plans offered at colleges and universities. In a <a href="/blog/2011/student-health-plan-enrollees-gain-new-protections-under-affordable-care-act">new blog post</a>, Commonwealth Fund vice president Sara Collins, Ph.D., explains that by classifying student health plans as individual market plans, the new regulations ensure that students will enjoy most of the consumer protections provided by the Affordable Care Act, such as bans on lifetime benefit limits, bans on rescissions of insurance policies when someone becomes ill, and coverage of recommended preventive services without copayments.</p>
<p>At the same time, the rules provide some flexibility to health plans so that they continue to offer plans to students. Millions of current and future students stand to gain from these new protections. To read more, visit <a href="/Publications/Blog.aspx">The Commonwealth Fund Blog</a>. </p>