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Show Students use checklist for optimizing their living r.rees IKEA Thursday, August 26, 2010 University Journal Page 4 provides a comprehensive list of items essential for comfortable space Living and sleeping: Sofa bed or loft bed, mattress and pad, pillows, sheet sets, comforter and cover, curtains or blinds, alarm clock, comfortable chair or floor g pillows, area rug, wastepaper basket, lamps and energy-savinlight bulbs, iron and ironing board. Colleges say new health law may imperil existing student policies MCT Kaiser Health News Colleges and universities say some rules in the new health lav could keep them from offering limited-beneft, student insurance policies, and they're seeking federal authority to continue offering them. Their request drew fire from critics, however, who say that student health plans should be held to the same standards that other insurance is. Among other things, the colleges want clarification that they wont have to offer the policies to Without a number of changes, it may be impossible to continue to offer student health plans, says a letter that the American Council on Education sent Aug. 12 to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. signed by 12 other trade associations that represent colleges. Additionally, the colleges say that some provisions of the law dont apply to their policies, including those that require insurers to spend at least 80 percent of their revenue on medical care and that bar them from setting annual coverage caps. Many of the provisions at issue dont go into effect until 2014, but the colleges say they need clarity soon because theyre contracts negotiating long-terwith insurers now. HHS spokeswoman Jessica Santillo said Sebelius had received the letter and looks forward to sending a response. Santillo added that the health care law allows many young adults to stay on parents policies until age 26. The request comes amid continued scrutiny of student health plans, including an ongoing investigation by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who said in April that some of the plans left students at risk while providing massive profits for insurance companies. His investigation has found low-cos- Studying: Computer desk, desk chair, work lamp, file cabinet, notice board, cord organizer, roll-u- p keyboard, iPod docks, headphones. Eating: Cookware, coffee maker, mug, bowl, plates, flatware, storage containers, can and bottle openers, mini fridge. Storage: Bookcase, media storage, hangers, shoe and closet organizers, all shelves, hooks Shower: Towels and wash cloths, shower caddy, laundry bag. Source: MCT, Jean Patteson, The Orlando Sentmal Three types of checking Free, Free-e- r, and m Free-e- st experience more at southwestfederal.com Cedar City Office 444 South Main Suite 2 B-- (435) 586-405- 5 -- it Y Y SouthWfest COMMUNITY CREDIT SOUTHWESTFEDERAL.COM 800-371-26- UNION that policies offered to New York students were inexpensive, ranging from as little as $100 a school year to more than S2.500, but that the benefits also vary some with capping widely, annual coverage at $25,000 or setting caps as low as per-illne- S700.W Buying these kinds of products with low premiums enables colleges to keep students' costs down. But the problem is the protection provided students under the plans isn't sufficient. said Mark Rukavina of the Access Project, an advocacy group in Boston thats studied student health plans. If you are a student who needs care, given the caps on benefits, you are in trouble. More than half of colleges offer student nationwide insurance plans, according to a March 2008 study by the Government Accountability Office. While 80 percent of college students were insured, often through their parents coverage, only seven percent bought their own policies or plans, purchased school-base- d according to the GAO. Starting in 2014, the new health law bars annual caps such as those in student health plans. Starting this year, insurers must offer at least $750,000 in coverage per year, although insurers or employers can apply for waivers from that restriction. Colleges say their plans dont fall under the annual cap requirement because theyre limited duration considered policies, meaning they expire after a certain number of months, generally the school year. They also say that such limited duration policies dont have to meet rules that require insurers to spend an average of at least 80 percent of revenue on direct medical care, rather than administrative costs or profits, or issue rebates to policyholders. Law professor Bryan Liang disagrees. That sounds like wishful thinking on their part, said Liang, a critic of student health low-quali- ty plans w'ho is the executive director of the Institute of Health Law Studies at California Western School of Law in San Diego. Even if the plans are considered limited duration policies, he said, such policies are regulated by states, which can set similar spending rules. Many student plans would flunk the spending test. A recent report by Massachusetts state officials, for example, found that spending on medical care among the 13 insurers that offer student plans in the state ranged from 46 percent to 89 percent, wfith the average at 69 percent. Requiring them to meet even some of the new rules could drive up premiums, colleges say. Premiums could increase, for example, if regulators determine that student health plans are considered individual policies rather than group plans, which often get a better rate, said Steven Bloom, the assistant director of federal relations at the American Council on Education. Additionally, the colleges fear that theyd be required to offer the plans to anyone who applied for one, even if the applicant wasnt a student, Bloom said. Liang, the law professor, doubts that colleges would be forced to offer insurance to anyone who walked into a campus health center. Thats like saying I, as a non-IBemployee, could go to IBM and say, You need to give me said Liang, who insurance, sent a letter Aug. 17 to Sebelius in response to the education councils request. He doesnt think that school plans should be offered any in the protection special are that being regulations developed to implement the health care law. The school-base- d policies financially benefit the school and their insurance company partners over the student ... are poor in coverage and may violate consumer protection law and public policy, his letter says. r. 'I i 4 I , |