New health law puts many N.J. college students in coverage limbo
Wednesday October 30, 2013, 11:31 PM
BY COLLEEN DISKIN AND PATRICIA ALEX
STAFF WRITERS
The Record
The nation’s top health official struggled Wednesday to explain why policy cancellations and a crippled website have left many people — including tens of thousands of suddenly uninsured community college students in New Jersey — in a state of health insurance limbo.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius underwent heated questioning from Congress on continuing website problems.
Both she and President Obama went on the defensive against the growing outcry over cancellation notices that many insurance companies have sent to their customers. The new law outlaws many of the bare-bones-coverage policies that individuals, small businesses and colleges used to offer, and as a result many insurers have raised prices or scrapped plans altogether.
In New Jersey, college students who enrolled this fall were among the first to experience unforeseen changes in the marketplace, with many seeing their annual health insurance costs triple. At community colleges in Bergen and Passaic counties, students lost coverage altogether.
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