Michigan State University President Lou Anna K. Simon fully supports an insurance authorization for current freshmen and incoming students. The uninsured are automatically roped into a $1,505 per-year, school-sponsored plan. To date, about 700 students have been forcibly charged the fee as a matter of continued enrollment.

The editorial board’s articles of late (“Mandatory health care ails students,” SN 3/27) sum up the point. This editorial describes the detrimental consequences of the authoritative scheme. Spartancare will add “another large cost to college bills, and it’s just giving students another fee to worry about paying on top of the expensive price of college to begin with.”

Republican lawmakers have also voiced their concern. State Rep. Bob Genetski, R-Saugatuck, who chairs the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Higher Education, expressed an issue with the legality of the measure, according to Michiganradio.org: “It sounds like the early onset of Obamacare, and I don’t know that that’s their right to put it in.” House Republicans are advocating for students while counteracting President Simon’s misguided views.

However, public funding may be lowered if MSU fails to alter its stance. “It’s unreasonable that MSU is forcing some students to pay for required health insurance,” proclaims the aforementioned editorial, “but the university obviously isn’t too concerned with students’ opinion on the matter, seeing as they likely will give up funding to keep the health care that many students don’t want or need.”

The hefty health care fine could determine key academic decisions. It is nearly equivalent to an additional four-credit-hour course for an in-state lower division student. Promising students may consider attending an alternative school due to the added cost of living.

Whether for financial gain or petty political points, or both, Simoncare does not belong at MSU. Top-down rule by decree is wrong for the student community.

Nicholas Kowalski, political theory junior