According to the Department of Health and Human Services, the Affordable Care Act could bring single adults health care plans that cost $50 or less per month, with the maximum premium payment determined by a person’s yearly income.
The Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) Research Brief said that a single adult who makes up to $11,490 a year could pay up to $19 dollars a month for the second lowest-cost silver plan on the market.
This sliding scale cost is catered to college students, who make up about 1.3 million uninsured young adults in America and may qualify for a fewer-than-$50-dollar-a-month medical plan.
Laura Burrell, junior mathematics major, is insured by her parents but sees the positive potential that the Affordable Care Act gives college students.
“I feel like it’s very beneficial because I have friends who were dropped from their parent’s insurance because they were dropped from Medicaid. This actually helped them out a lot,” Burrell said. “I believe in the long run it’s worth it, because I also study econ and I know other places around the world who pay a little bit more taxes for cheaper health care, like Britain, Sweden and Canada.”
On the other hand, the Affordable Care Act requires most citizens to obtain health insurance by 2014 and raises taxes on citizens.
The key taxes are the individual mandate excise tax and the employee mandate tax. They will come into effect in January 2014. These are just two of the 20-plus new or higher taxes that were created because of the Affordable Care Act.
Don Kim, a junior biology major, commented on these apparent downsides.
“It is maybe taking away the freedom we have, because they basically force us to get the insurance,” Kim said. “The only downside I see is that they are going to have to spend a lot of money that they don’t have to make us insured.”
The Affordable Care Act initiated plans are currently on the Marketplace website and will begin coverage in 2014.
