Student activists dressed in hospital scrubs worked to spread awareness about national health care legislation that went into effect Thursday.
New Mexico Public Interest Researsh Group’s student activists were out in full force, educating peers about new health insurance options. As part of the act, students can now stay on a parent’s insurance plan until age 26, and another change forbids insurers to drop coverage because of paperwork errors.
Beverly Kloeppel, director of the Student Health Center, said the legislation is a step in the right direction and will help save money.
“Early intervention and prevention help with medical costs in the long-term,” she said. “For example, (it’s the difference between) coming in when they have a respiratory infection that isn’t going away on it’s own, as opposed to having to be hospitalized for pneumonia.”
Health care reform doesn’t stop there. In 2014, insurance companies will no longer be able to deny coverage based on preexisting conditions. Individuals will also be required to have insurance.
Dede Feldman, a state senator, said more than 430,000 people in the state are uninsured, and that burden of not having insurance falls on taxpayers.
“People insured here pay some of the highest premiums in the nation,” she said. “When people don’t have insurance, what happens when they get sick? They go to the emergency room, and the hospital has to absorb the cost.”
Joel Galles, president of the College Republicans, said no matter what, someone will have to foot the bill.
“The health care bill is going to be a huge burden on the next generation of taxpayers,” he said. “It’s going to plunge our country further into debt. There is no doubt that changes need to be made to the health care system. This is a little bit drastic.”
What’s most unsettling, Kloeppel said, is that U.S. health care is more expensive than in other countries, and it’s not necessarily better care.
“Our health indicators for things like longevity and infant mortality are not as positive as countries that spend less on health care,” she said. “We do some things better than any other nation, but overall our health indicators don’t indicate that we get very much bang for our buck.”
Feldman said insurances costs need to be standardized.
“It becomes a very difficult stranglehold to break. As the cost of insurance goes higher, more people drop insurance,” she said. “It becomes a vicious cycle.”
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox