health & fitness
Students Can
Keep Parents'
Health Insurance
Until Age 27
John Freeman
Special to the Jewish News
R
HERE'S THE GANTZE MEGILLAH.
Like Purim, the Lakes Medical Building has lOTS'...of excellent doctors.
congratulates Dr. Alan Goldsmith for being
named one of Styleline Magazine's (t: i1/42c -L -. 2012!
We also congratulate Hour Magazine's
Lop- L-lacg. of the Lakes Medical Building
Martin Apple MD
Mark Kwartowitz DO
James Gordon MD
Ronald Lederman MD
Michael Greenley MD
Sharon Minott MD
Steven Kushner DO
Kevin Neff MD
Sanford Vieder DO
and Cheryl Ruble MD for receiving the
2011
Ctioit-ce.- Award
-
DR. VIEDER
Medical Director
-
www.lakesurgentcare.com
2300 Haggerty Road Suite 1010 j West Bloomfield, MI 48323
(On Haggerty Road just North of Meijer)
248-926-9111
We accept most major insurances.
Including Auto, Workers' Comp and Medicare
40 February 23 • 2012
JN
ecently, Michigan State University
announced that if students do
not have health insurance cover-
age on their own, they will be required to
enroll in a MSU plan at a cost of nearly
$1,500 for the year.
The university was acting in response
to the fact that a high number of students
at MSU have historically not had cover-
age, and they want to protect students
who might get sick and have to choose
between paying medical bills or college.
But what was missing in the news
coverage is that college students, as well
as other young adults between ages
18-26, have another option thanks to the
Affordable Care Act (ACA). Under this
new federal law, young adults now can
stay on their parents' health insurance
plan until their 27th birthday. The young
adult can be married or file their taxes
as an independent and still qualify. They
don't have to live with their parents or
even live in the same state as their par-
ents.
There are currently about 207,000
uninsured young adults between ages
19-26 in Michigan. Since this new provi-
sion took effect in 2010, approximately
32,800 young adults have signed back on
their parents' family policy, and nation-
wide more than 2.5 million more young
adults now have coverage through their
parents' plan, thanks to the Affordable
Care Act.
Many students who do not have insur-
ance do not seek medical treatment when
they are sick, and when a person is sick
they do not perform as well in school or
at work as when they are healthy.
MSU is right that students need health
insurance. But students, thanks to the
Affordable Care Act, can avoid the MSU
plan and save $1,500 by simply sign-
ing up on their parents' policy. And for
those parents that may not currently
have insurance, beginning January 2014,
they will be able to buy affordable quality
health care from the state health insur-
ance exchange.
For more information, visit www.
healthcare.gov or www.KnowYourCare.
org. ❑
John Freeman, a former Michigan state
representative, is state director of Know Your
Care, an organization dedicated to educating
the public about the benefits available under
the Affordable Care Act.