Editorials

EDITORIAL: Closing the Student Health Plan Affordability Gap

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If you go to Cornell, you either have a health insurance plan or you are a clever rulebreaker. If your parents didn’t shell out for eligible private insurance, then you’re likely on the University’s Student Health Plan, which is comprehensive and student-tailored. Students with lower incomes can enroll in a related plan, called SHP+, free of charge. So for most, enrolling in a health plan is but a matter of setting and forgetting. But not for everyone.

ACA

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Re: ‘Affordable Care Act Provisions that Went Beyond Healthcare “unseen by the public eye,” Professor Says’

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To the Editor:

I generally agree with the idea that the government should engage more actively with its constituents regarding federal policies to challenge the submerged state, but I believe the effects of the Affordable Care Act did not go unnoticed. Many initiatives in the ACA took years to implement, and they took effect gradually over the course of several years. A few of the milestones, such as long-term care insurance (2011), 3.8 percent surcharge on individuals who make over $200,000 (2013) and prohibition of insurance companies from denying individuals with preexisting conditions (2014) were all implemented after the 2010 midterm elections. Indeed, one of the most important pieces of the ACA — the Medicaid expansion — became effective in January 2014 and the Congressional Budget Office is continually updating the increase in health insurance coverage rate today. While there are provisions in the ACA that may go unnoticed, milestones like Medicaid expansion probably did not escape the public eye.