EDITORIAL – Attending college for the health care coverage

At community college campuses across Pennsylvania, health insurance coverage is the motivating… At community college campuses across Pennsylvania, health insurance coverage is the motivating factor for many students to attend class. In order to be eligible for their families’ health insurance plans, students must be full-time.

The result? Students are either unmotivated to do well in school or they end up being in over their heads with schoolwork, unable to opt to be part-time students because they will lose their health insurance.

According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, this is an issue for about 40 percent of students at Butler County Community College. And it is an issue for a third of the students at Northampton Community College.

For community college students, the cost of tuition is about the same as the cost of health insurance on an independent policy, leading many parents to encourage their children to attend college, even if their children cannot handle the pressures of being full-time students.

Attending college full time is an understandable alternative to acquiring a full-time job with no guarantee of health insurance. But the current health insurance system in Pennsylvania is clearly holding students back. Currently, as reported by the Post-Gazette, insurance companies allow parents to cover their dependent children until age 19, with the opportunity for extensions if the child is registered as a full-time college student.

Gov. Ed Rendell is also considering a provision to allow parents to keep children who are dependent and unmarried on their health insurance plans until age 30, no matter the number of classes they take.

The obvious problem is that reforms that extend the age limit can encourage dependency in students and keep them unmotivated about school, attending only for the health insurance coverage.

This type of dependency should not be encouraged. Instead, there should be certain regulations and parameters within health insurance policies. Those students who are apathetic and slacking off, living in their parents’ basements should not qualify for health insurance intended to help serious college students.

But at the same time, health insurance coverage should be extended to part-time students. Those who cannot handle the full-time course load should not have to be forced to enroll as full-time students. Such a situation only leads to increased pressure and poor grades. Furthermore, many colleges suspend students who exhibit poor academic performance, causing them to lose their health insurance.

Solving these problems, however, is much like putting a bandage on the bigger issue of health care reform. Health care should be made more affordable for college students so that students will not be forced to take on more courses than they can handle.