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The Affordable Care Act (also known as ObamaCare) has begun to roll out in earnest. While the politics of the bill are certainly something that continue be debated, the fact is that the Act is certainly here today. If you have a student who is in college or who is going to college, you are faced with a very different health care landscape than you were looking at last year. The major differences are in the types and cost of coverage available, as well as who will pay for that coverage.

Longer Coverage

Perhaps the best-known provision of the Affordable Care Act was the increase in the length of time that a single college student could remain on his or her parents’ insurance. The new limit is 26, which is enough time for most students to finish an undergraduate degree as well as a Master’s program. This gives parents a chance to make sure that their children maintain coverage even after they head off to college, and it gives most students a better level of overall insurance coverage than they might be able to afford on their own. The coverage is not indefinite, but it does help to fill in the gaps that many experience in their 20s.

Required Care

The longer coverage period will be quite helpful, since your student will now be required to have health insurance. Many schools have already required some form of coverage for their students (the SUNY system in New York is a notable example), but the new government regulations will apply a tax penalty to adults who are not covered. It seems likely that more major universities will require some form of health care for students to attend, though this is only conjecture at this point. What is important, though, is that all students will be required to have coverage or to pay the tax penalties at the end of the year.

Exchanges and Insurance

As the health insurance exchanges go live, it is important to remember that your college student might have a chance to get insurance that is actually cheaper than what is available to you. While these exchanges are certainly experience their share of problems at the moment, the fully-functional version of the system will allow most people with lower incomes (including college students) to become insured for a far lower rate than what was possible even a year ago. This will allow your student to get better coverage without requiring you to go into debt.

Changing Coverage

Regardless of where your politics stand on the Affordable Care Act, it is objectively true that many traditional insurance companies are changing their programs as well as their pricing structures. If your college student is covered under your current health insurance, you may want to check and see how the coverage may change in the next year. In most cases, the coverage will remain the same but the premiums might change. It is always a good idea to contact your insurance company to find out what changes might be afoot.

Politics aside, the Affordable Care Act will change the way that college students and their parents deal with the issue of health care. The best way to determine how the Act will impact you or your students is to contact your insurance company and the child’s school to get more information about changes that might be made. While the landscape is certainly changing, it is not changing in a way that you cannot grasp. With a little research, you should be able to get a firm handle on the new reality of health care.

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Author Bio

Ryan Ayers is a writer who creates informative articles in relation to education. In this article, he describes health care changes through new policies and aims to encourage further study with an NEC Master of Art in Public Policy .