Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services (courtesy of Creative Commons)

Student health insurance are set to receive benefits under the Affordable Care Act beginning next year. This announcement follows months of lobbying by college associations and advocates for students.

Student advocacy groups said that the student health plans currently at most schools do not offer enough coverage and are just a way for the school to make money. College associations asked rulemakers to continue plans without making the changes students wanted.

But Wednesday, the Obama administration announced that health care reform protection will be extended to student health plans offered to colleges.

“These regulations are a big win for the millions of students on these plans and their families. We are happy to see that H.H.S. heard the voices of young people and guaranteed they will finally get the health insurance that all Americans deserve,” Aaron Smith, a co-founder and executive director of the Young Invincibles, a nonprofit group representing interest of young adults, said in a statement issued by the group to the New York Times.

Under these protections, student health plans cannot impose lifetime coverage limits, drop students due to unintentional application errors or discriminate against students with pre-existing conditions.

The Department of Health and Human Services proposed rule would force student health insurance plans to provide a minimum of $100,000 in annual coverage starting Sep. 23, 2012.

The $100,000 will be an increase, as most colleges currently cap benefits at $30,000 or less. Currently, many plans do not cover some procedures and medicine such as chemotherapy. The higher coverage rate will.

"As advocates for strong consumer protections for college students, we are very excited that students will finally begin to see better college health plans and much-needed protections from abuses of the insurance industry,” Jen Mishory, deputy director of Young Invincibles, told The Hill.

While many schools will have to change benefits and overall coverage, Steven M. Bloom, director of federal relations at ACE, told Inside Higher Ed. that there are many institutions who’s current plans are up to par and will not be effected.

“For some institutions it won’t require big changes at all because they already have very, very comprehensive plans…. [Other plans] that have much less don’t really provide robust, comprehensive care, and there will be changes with those plans. They will have to come in line with the requirements,” Bloom told Inside Higher Ed.

The new regulations would classify students as individual consumers and ensure that they will have access to better health insurance. As part of an individual plan, 80 cents of every premium dollar will go to care.

Currently, 1,500-2,000 schools, including the University of Southern California, offer some type of coverage and 1.1 million to 4.5 million students are enrolled in college health plans. These protections will allow them greater health care.

Under the new regulations, insurance companies and the university must tell students if their plan meets the new requirements.

Many feel that the new regulation will allow college students affordable health care options that will increase coverage currently offered.

“This rule would ensure that these plans remain a viable, affordable option for students while guaranteeing that they are regulated consistently and offer transparent benefits to students,” H.H.S. secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in the release according to the New York Times.

Despite the positive effects many say the regulations will have on college health insurance plans, not all provisions in the Affordable Care Act will apply to student plans.

Guaranteed Issue, which allows anyone to purchase a student plan and Guaranteed Renewability, which ensures the plan can be renewed from year to year will not apply, according to Inside Higher Ed.

However, Bloom still said that the plan will be beneficial and he believes it will be relatively cheap.

“We assumed that ACA would apply to [student plans] in some fashion, we just didn’t know exactly how,” Bloom said to Inside Higher Ed. “We were acting away and advocating away for plans that were very much consistent with the principles laid out by the American College Health Association for what a good plan should look like, and I think you’re likely to see that these regulations will lead to reform of student health plans and lead to better coverage in those situations where right now the plans are not very good.”

More information on the proposed rule can be found here.  Information about the Affordable Care Act and the protection created under it can be found here.

Reach Hannah Madans here.