The University hosted a series of Flash Seminars last month about health care reform and the Affordable Care Act organized by Melissa Rickman, a third-year College and first-year Batten School student.
Health care reform is important to both the individual and the nation, Rickman said, and is particularly relevant for students, who will be faced with health care decisions during the coming years.
"I thought a Flash Seminar series on health care reform and the Affordable Care Act would be not only interesting, but practical," she said.
President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act March 23, 2010. Most changes initiated by the law should be complete by 2014, with some having already taken effect.
A few of these early changes are particularly relevant to college students. For example, beginning in 2010 young adults can remain on their parents' insurance plan until they are 26 years old.
During the seminar series, Batten School Prof. Ray Scheppach explained two major aspects of the Affordable Care Act. Scheppach said the act eliminated medical underwriting, which allowed health care providers to deny insurance to individuals lacking employer-sponsored coverage because of pre-existing medical conditions. The act also extended health insurance to about 30 million people through Medicaid expansion and the creation of health insurance exchanges in states.
These exchanges allow consumers to better compare various health care plans. Scheppach said they could be likened to a travel website such as Expedia or Kayak, where individuals search for a particular flight and the results list multiple airlines sorted by flight price with any additional fees included in the list price. Eventually, the comparison in a health care exchange may include quality ratings as well as price comparisons.
Another seminar session discussed a highly controversial portion of the Affordable Care Act: the individual mandate. The individual mandate requires every individual to have insurance coverage by 2014 or pay a penalty which increases until 2016, when it will remain steady except for inflation adjustments.
The Affordable Care Act, however, can only enforce this mandate by enabling the IRS to deny a tax refund to uninsured taxpayers.
Critics of the legislation assert Congress does not have the authority to require individuals to purchase health insurance, and therefore believe this portion of the law is unconstitutional.
Proponents, however, point to a clause in the first Article of the Constitution, colloquially called "the commerce clause," which grants Congress the power to regulate commerce between states. Historically, the Supreme Court has expanded this power to include the management of many varied aspects of industry and trade.
Several federal district and circuit courts have heard cases regarding the individual mandate but have delivered mixed decisions about the mandate's constitutionality.
One case involving the Commonwealth of Virginia ruled the mandate is unconstitutional, but upheld the remainder of the Act. The Supreme Court agreed to hear one of the broader cases March 26, and is expected to make a decision by June 2012, although some speculate the decision will be delayed until 2014 when the mandate goes into effect.
The week of health care Flash Seminars gave University students enough information to begin to write their own prescription for the U.S. health care system.
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