Give us Sicko or give us death, kids.
You know what we are going to get, don't you?
"Bid to track students' health plans called lacking; Advocates say rules need to spur greater coverage" by Kay Lazar, Globe Staff | April 25, 2009
Reports suggest that an increasing number of students and their families are saddled with enormous medical bills after accidents or serious injuries because the policies marketed to students provide limited coverage, compared with standard insurance products.
State regulations require college students to have health insurance but allow insurers to substantially limit coverage. As a result, most of the current policies fail to meet the minimum standards set for other plans as part of the state's 2006 near-universal health law.
Although students are free to buy more expensive policies, roughly 77,800 students are covered by plans that cap payments at $50,000 a year per injury or illness. That limit can easily be exceeded after a serious accident. Many also include a $1,500-a-year limit on prescriptions and other out-patient services.
So DON'T GET SICK, kid!
Sarah Iselin, commissioner of the Division of Health Care Finance and Policy, the agency that regulates student health insurance, has said the proposed new rules would be a first step as she weighs whether to make insurers offer more comprehensive student health plans. She said she is waiting for an analysis she commissioned last fall on the financial effect on students if regulators required insurers to provide more generous benefits....
Pfffft!!
Bill Devine - an insurance broker whose company, University Health Plans, sells insurance to the community college system, Simmons College, Suffolk University, and other schools - said the cost of new reporting requirements would probably be passed on to students.
Even as they are denied services!! In-f***ing-credible!!
You know, since we are bailing out banks to the tune of trillions, how about a little health care for the kids?
He also predicted that mandatory reporting of insurance companies' profit margins would be unpopular in the industry, which does not typically publish its profit margins, known as medical loss ratios.
Well, TOOOOOOOO BAAAAAAAAAADDDD!!!!!!!!!!
Jay Linnehan, executive vice president of Middlesex Community College and chairman of the select committee that selects student health plans for the state's 15 community colleges, said that Nationwide, the community college system's insurer, is receiving a 75 ratio, meaning that 25 cents of every dollar students pay to Nationwide goes toward profit or administrative costs, and 75 goes toward medical care....
Little STEEP, ain't it?
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