14 Nov 2013 ObamaCare Kills Affordable Health Coverage for Black Students

I guess if you like your coverage you really can’t keep it as millions of Americans have been finding out over the last month.  As the plan the university has provided for many semester[s] is considered to be out of compliance with the rules that the [Department of Health and Human Services] released for colleges and universities the university is forced to send everyone to the Maryland Exchange.  This is one sure way to make sure those “Invincible Millennials” are on the exchanges to make sure the cost of the [Affordable Care Act] is balanced out.

Are those the angry words of Sarah Palin?  Pat Buchanan?  Paul Ryan?

No, it’s Eugene Craig III, the editor of the Bulldog Collegian, a student newspaper at Bowie State University — one of the several historically black colleges and universities found in the state of Maryland.

Male teacher instructing his student sitting in front of a laptop

Why is this black student journalist at a predominantly black campus so mad at our nation’s first black president (who was elected and re-elected by overwhelmingly margins of black Americans)?

Earlier this fall, Bowie State officials “suspended” the health insurance coverage the school previously offered to its students because of “new requirements of the Affordable Care Act.”  ObamaCare.

The school had offered minimal coverage to students at a cost of around $50 a semester.  This plan, however, did not meet new ObamaCare requirements.  Before cancelling coverage altogether, the apparent best plan school officials could find would have cost students approximately $1,800 annually — roughly 36 times the previous rate.

So the school chose to just end it — not mend it.  Students are now on their own to find health insurance.

In the posting of the change, it was noted that “[e]ven though BSU is no longer offering student insurance, the Affordable Care Act does require everyone to have health insurance.”  Advice from the school administration to students on their options was to stay on their parents’ coverage (if they were still under 26 years old), buy their own plan outright or begin searching the Maryland State Insurance Exchange.

That was the suggestion for citizen students.  Foreign students, who were also offered coverage in the past, were told they should also look for their own insurance plans.

It would seem that President Obama’s most loyal supporters are once against bearing the brunt of his policies.  Rather than enjoying peace of mind that ObamaCare was promised to bring Americans, many of the students on the majority-black campus must now divide their time between their coursework and trying to log onto a web site (if its up and running) in pursuit of must-buy coverage.

Members of the National Center’s Project 21 black leadership network are appalled by the problem that the Obama Administration has foisted upon Americans — young, black Americans, in particular — in its attempt to control the nation’s health care system.

Project 21 member Derryck Green, a student in southern California, said:

Count Bowie State University — a member of our nation’s proud family of historically black colleges and universities — as another institution negatively affected by ObamaCare regulations.

Because of the consequences associated with new federal health care coverage rules mandated by the Obama Administration’s Department of Health and Human Services, Bowie State can no longer afford to offer students health insurance at a reasonable price.

As frustrating and disrupting as this may be for the BSU student body, especially those students over 26 years old, this may end up being one of the most important set of lessons they learn while in college.

One bitter lesson is that elections have consequences.  Considering the high level of support that Obama maintains among black Americans, it’s safe to say that many at BSU —including both students and administrators alike — voted for Obama and thus deserve what they voted for.  Maybe this will motivate them to think critically next time about the results of grandiose progressive policies rather than just the simplistic, well-meaning intentions.

Another lesson is that they are also now learning that the President’s “if you like your insurance, you can keep your insurance” promise was really a lie.

Yet another lesson that Bowie State students are learning is, when government inserts itself into the relationship that exists between the consumer and that which is being consumed, it inevitably complicates and potentially ends the relationship.  In this case, ObamaCare priced BSU out of the insurance market — likely forcing hundreds, if not thousands, of students into Maryland’s state exchange.

Many things students learn in college are forgettable.  For Bowie State University students, this lifelong lesson they are getting right now is invaluable.

Additionally, Project 21 member Darryn “Dutch” Martin echoes Derryck’s you-reap-what-you-sow conclusion about the plight facing Bowie State.  Dutch said:

A recent Quinnipiac University poll reports that 75 percent of African-Americans still approve of President Obama’s job performance, despite a solid majority of Americans disapproving of his performance.  But the situation at Bowie State is yet more proof that the President’s most loyal constituency is being hurt the most by his administration.

Furthermore, I believe that things will only get worse before they get better — or at least until the black community, among all of the others blindly following President Obama’s lead, finally decides to wake up and face reality.