The ironically named Affordable Care Act is poised to increase the cost of healthcare at American colleges. The report below is about UNC specifically, but these issues will no doubt apply to other schools.

Mauricio Barreto of Carolina Review reports.

NC Health Insurance

Health insurance costs for college students are rising, and they are rising quickly. President Obama’s healthcare law, known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA), is going to experience its largest implementations in the coming year, and the effects can already be seen.

Tom Ross, president of the University of North Carolina System was the first to mention any impact this would have on students in the UNC university system in a letter he wrote to the board of governors about health insurance cost increases. In the letter Ross writes, “Based on more than three semesters of actual claims experience, as well as the new provisions of the Affordable Care Act, we are facing large increases in premiums for our students.“ Further on in the letter Ross describes how the average costs would rise over 50% in order to continue to provide the same “quality coverage” at “comparatively low rates”. In essence Ross described the beginning of the ACA’s direct effect on a typical student, but there is still so much about the new law that has not been fleshed out.

On June 28, 2012 the Supreme Court redefined the original proposal Obama had hoped in the passing of the Affordable Care Act. While the original mandate of making the purchase of healthcare a requirement for all was upheld, the Supreme Court changed the law by making the expansion of the Medicaid program under the Affordable Care Act a state option. What this essentially means is that each individual state can now choose whether or not to accept responsibility for the ACA Medicaid enrollment requirements coverage, or choose to opt out of it, which would mean the federal government would have to assume responsibility.