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The Affordable Care Act & Self-funded Student Plans

On January 30, 2013, the Obama Administration proposed that self-funded student health care plans would qualify as “minimum essential coverage” under the Affordable Care Act (‘ACA’),1 which mandates that all Americans maintain minimum essential coverage in 2014 and beyond or face a tax. If self-funded student health care plans qualify as “minimum essential coverage” with no other requirements, it will allow insurers to offer plans forever exempt from the protections of the ACA, creating a large loophole into which hundreds of thousands of students will fall.The most notable exemptions for these self-funded student health care plans are that they can impose limits on annual and lifetime coverage.2 Currently, an estimated 30 universities offer self-funded plans,3 but the loophole could encourage more schools to adopt these plans.4

To read the full fact sheet, click here.