Guilford College in North Carolina will likely be forced to charge students 75 percent more for health insurance in order to comply with federal regulations under President Barack Obama's sweeping healthcare law, college administrators told Campus Reform.
The cost for university provided health insurance is expected to increase dramatically from $668 to $1,179 in the 2012-2013 school year, Greg Bursavich, vice president for finance at Guilford College, told students in an email in late July.
"Our student health insurance policy premium has been substantially increased due to changes required by federal regulations issued on March 16, 2012 under the Affordable Care Act," read the email from Bursavich.
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In an exclusive interview with Campus Reform, Bursavich further implicated Obamacare for the drastic rise in prices."It is directly related – it is only related – to the new healthcare law," said Bursavich. "There is no reason why it has gone up except the requirements of the new law have forced it to go up. That is the whole story."
He added that costs were rising because ObamaCare mandates students are covered for certain health services “deemed essential” by the federal government.
"[T]he notion that the health care law wouldn’t cost everybody more money is nonsense," said Bursavich. "[You can’t] begin adding coverage on things that used to not be covered and just assume that some genie in the sky is going to pay for it. We are all paying for it and this is the beginning."
Guilford College reportedly requires all of their students to have some form of health insurance. Students can stay on their parents' insurance, buy their own or utilize the school's insurance plan.
"We want them to have insurance. We want our students to be taken care of," Bursavich added. "It’s because we care about them."
(H/T: Young America's Foundation)
