Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Obamacare Taking Away Insurance Coverage for Students

In an entirely unsurprising development, Franciscan University of Steubenville announced yesterday that it would discontinue its student health insurance plan rather than comply with Obamacare’s mandates on religious institutions – just the latest example of individuals and organizations being forced to give up the coverage they have and like due to government edicts.  Recall that the Administration’s own estimates revealed that Obamacare’s onerous regulations will force most firms – and up to 80 percent of small businesses – to give up their current plans, thus subjecting them to costly new mandates that will increase premiums.  Millions more seniors will lose access to the Medicare Advantage plans they have and like.

It’s also worth noting that the intrusion on the university’s religious freedom was not the only reason Franciscan cancelled its student health plan.  The university’s statement also noted that Obamacare “increased the mandated maximum coverage amount for student policies…which would effectively double [students’] premium cost for the policy in fall 2012, with the expectation of further increases in the future.”  The statement is ironic on several levels:

  1. Candidate Obama repeatedly promised premiums would go down by $2,500 thanks to his law – but Franciscan has admitted that Obamacare would cause premiums to skyrocket, if they didn’t drop their plan entirely.
  2. The Obama campaign platform promised that “you will not have to change plans.  For those who have insurance now, nothing will change under the Obama plan – except that you will pay less.”  That didn’t happen to students at Franciscan: They will have to change plans – and even if they didn’t, they would have had to pay more.
  3. Apparently this Catholic university couldn’t get a waiver from the Administration to continue its current plan – unlike the millions of members of union plans, who represent the majority of beneficiaries from Obamacare waivers.  Coincidence?

Today Washington’s Archbishop called a commencement speaking invitation to Secretary Sebelius shocking, given Obamacare’s intrusions on religious liberty.  Given yesterday’s developments, some may call it similarly shocking if anyone can actually keep their current plan after Obamacare’s government bureaucrats impose their will on Americans’ health coverage.