Because the state Legislature has struggled to reach a budget agreement, an issue important to many MSU students is falling through the cracks — health insurance.
Proposals that would allow students and others to remain covered under their parents’ health insurance plan until the age of 26 have sat idle since May.
Matt Sweeney, chief of staff for Sen. Cameron Brown, R-Fawn River Twp., who is the lead sponsor of one of the proposals, said Michigan’s current law allows students to remain covered under their parents’ health insurance plan until they turn 24. According to Sweeney, the bills have become a victim of the state’s budget crises.
“At this point in time, it’s been difficult to move other issues because the Legislature as a whole has ground to a halt,” Sweeney said. “Everything that has not been budget related has been put on hold.”
Sweeney said he hopes the proposals will be addressed after the budget deficit.
“Those bills and a lot of other public policy will get back on the fast track and start moving again,” Sweeney said.
Scott Lyon, vice president for small business services of the Small Business Association of Michigan, said the bills could slightly increase the health insurance costs for parents. But since 24- and 25-year-olds are generally a healthy segment of the population, those increases would be minimal.
“The employer would say ‘We can cover your 25-year-old son or daughter but your cost could increase by X to cover that,’” Lyon said.
Kicking 24-year-olds off their parents’ insurance is an outdated policy, Brown said. Many 24-year-olds are getting out of college, trying to get jobs and aren’t on their feet yet. That leaves many without the means to afford health insurance, he said.
“It’s an effort to get them under the umbrella of their parents’ coverage as they begin new jobs and move out into the workforce,” Brown said.
In the spring of 2007, there were 9,761 MSU students older than 24, according to the Office of the Registrar.
The change could lead to an increased cost for employers who provide health insurance, but it could also lead to a decrease in Medicaid, according to an analysis by the Senate Fiscal Agency.
“Increasing the number of young adults eligible for inclusion on their parents’ health insurance would likely lead to an indeterminate increase in health benefit cost for employers, including state and local governments that provide health coverage,” the analysis said.
“To the extent that the bills reduced the number of uninsured in the state, Michigan could see a small indeterminate decrease in Medicaid expenditure.”
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