Some colleges are either eliminating student health insurance plans or raising premiums on them as a result of Obamacare. According to the Wall Street Journal:
The new rules are likely to affect a broad swath of American colleges, particularly small ones. Some 60% of schools' plans had coverage of $50,000 or less for specific conditions, and almost all of the rest had some sort of payout caps that they will have to do away with by 2014, [a 2008] GAO study found.
The Obama administration argues that the most-limited-benefit plans colleges previously offered hardly counted as coverage at all.
The Journal reports that some schools are still deciding what to do about insurance coverage for next year. Small colleges and those that cater to lower-income students have been hit hardest by the reforms:
Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kan., this past year offered a 12-month plan that cost students $445, while capping payouts at $10,000. For the 2012-13 academic year, the Obama administration said the payout cap must be at least $100,000. Bethany said students would have had to pay more than $2,000 to get that new level of coverage.
"We decided not to offer coverage for our students next year given the proposed increase in premium," said Bob Schmoll, Bethany's vice president for finance.
Small Catholic colleges face particularly difficult choices, as all costs for contraception must be covered under any plan.