If the Affordable Care Act is repealed in the future, Syracuse University officials said they do not believe it will create issues for students enrolled in the university’s health insurance plan.

However, the potential lowering of minimum essential coverage requirements may require SU administrators to write new minimum coverage standards if students planning to opt out of the university’s health plan are to retain comprehensive coverage, some say.

Currently, all full-time undergraduate, graduate and law students at SU must have health insurance coverage that meets SU’s minimum guidelines, according to the Student Health Insurance Office’s website.

Those minimum standards require health insurance plans be provided by a U.S.-based insurer, cover emergency and non-emergency services in the Syracuse area and comply with the ACA.

The Student Health Insurance Plan, or SHIP, which is offered to SU students by the university, meets SU’s minimum standards. But students can opt out of SHIP if they can demonstrate they have coverage that complies with SU’s current minimum requirements.

Ben Domingo, director of SU Health Services, said if health insurance plans are watered down because the ACA’s minimum essential coverage standards are lowered or eliminated, it will be harder for SU to determine whether students that opt out of SHIP have comprehensive health insurance.

“Without minimum essential coverage guidelines it becomes very hard to figure out what somebody’s plan has or doesn’t have,” Domingo said.

The intent of the university’s current policies are to ensure students have adequate health coverage that prevents them from having unforeseen medical expenses, he said.

Domingo said if the minimum essential coverage mandate in the ACA is eliminated, students may come in with a “hodgepodge” of insurance plans ranging from good to “bare bones.”

“One of the things we could and should discuss in more detail is what we require in terms of minimum coverage,” Domingo said.

SHIP, he said, is comprehensive and meets the minimum coverages mandated by the ACA. It will still provide essential coverage for things such as women’s health care and psychiatric care even if the ACA is repealed, Domingo added.

John Palmer, a University Professor and dean emeritus at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, said states may be given the flexibility to lower minimum coverage guidelines if parts of the ACA are repealed.

“I think there’s some potential that the minimum coverage would not be set as high as it is now,” Palmer said.

Palmer said Democrats would be resistant to lowering insurance baselines. To maintain parts of the ACA such as full Medicaid expansion, however, Democrats might be willing to make a compromise with Republicans that could include giving states power to lower minimum coverage requirements, he added.

Grant Reeher, a political science professor in the Maxwell School, said states such as Texas and Florida — more conservative states that have opted out of the ACA’s full Medicaid expansion — may lower minimum requirements in a post-ACA world.

Many colleges, including Cornell University, have spent time determining what insurance plans they will and will not accept, Domingo said.

According to Cornell’s website, none of the requirements to waive Cornell’s student health insurance plan are connected to ACA mandates.

Domingo said the university has talked about setting new minimum guidelines, but the specific coverage baseline has not yet been solidified.

When portions of the ACA, also known as “Obamacare,” were nearly repealed this summer, Domingo said the university was waiting to see which parts of the ACA would be repealed or replaced.

The “skinny repeal,” which fell two votes short of passing in the Senate, would have eliminated the individual mandate requiring people to have health insurance. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the skinny repeal would have caused insurance premiums on the exchange to increase 20 percent.

Premiums for SHIP would remain competitive because SU has a favorable risk pool, Domingo said. College students are healthy and don’t need to use health insurance as much as older people, he said.

Because the future of the ACA is uncertain, Domingo said he expects more students to enroll in SHIP. Even this year, students have been voluntarily opting to enroll in SHIP in higher numbers, he added.

“The simple turbulence and uncertainty in our environment about the future of health care has, in my opinion, led people to clearly see the student plan as a good option,” Domingo said.

Published on August 29, 2017 at 12:31 am

Contact Jordan: jmulle01@syr.edu | @jordanmuller18