NC forcing college students to buy abortion coverage?
posted at 12:10 pm on August 10, 2010 by Ed Morrissey
Call it a dry run for ObamaCare. According to the advocacy group Students for Life, the state of North Carolina has created a back-door requirement that will force every uninsured student to pay for abortions. A new rule established by the Board of Governors requires every student attending its state-run universities and colleges to carry health insurance; if a student doesn’t have insurance, they will have to purchase it through the school. That plan funds abortions, which puts every uninsured student in the position of paying for them out of his or her own pocket:
Students for Life of America has discovered that this fall the North Carolina Board of Governors is requiring all students who are enrolled in a University of North Carolina public institution to have health insurance.
Students who do not already have private health insurance are required to buy a state selected policy from Pearce & Pearce, Inc. This mandated policy covers up to $500 toward elective abortions and has 80% PPO coverage for elective abortions.
The Pearce & Pearce policy costs students $744 per year or $375 per semester. The State of North Carolina will not be paying into the policy; rather, the students who are required to purchase the insurance will be required to pay the entire cost.
As a result, North Carolina students will be forced to pay for elective abortions, regardless of their personal views on the issue.
Sarah Hardin, President of North Carolina State University’s Students for Life group was shocked at the news: “When I learned a week ago that this mandatory health coverage included the coverage of an elective abortion, I was dumbfounded. As a pro-life student at NC State, I am dismayed that my classmates will not only be forced to purchase health insurance, but will also be forced to pay into a pool that will go to aborting the children of other North Carolina students.”
Like Kathryn Jean Lopez at The Corner, I suspect that this won’t last long, if indeed this is what has happened. The entire idea of requiring comprehensive health insurance as a prerequisite for attendance at school smacks of nanny-statism anyway. What’s the justification for a state-run school to require health insurance? The overwhelming majority of students will be adults and responsible for their own health care; the minors probably have coverage through their parents anyway.
Buying comprehensive plans like the (apparently) mandated policy makes almost no sense at all for healthy young adults, either. They would be better advised to buy catastrophic health insurance at much lower rates and pay out of pocket for incidental expenses. At $774 per year, students will have spent as much as they would for four or five comprehensive physical exams with labs, when most of them may decide to get one check-up during the year. Of course, that’s the argument against ObamaCare too, and too few people paid attention to the math to have it prevail this year.
We don’t yet have a response from the NCBoG, but if this is true, I suspect that a second plan sans abortion services will be made available for students to select, and probably soon. Somehow, I doubt that saner counsel will prevail and remove this non-academic prerequisite altogether.
Blowback
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Life expectancy of this new policy: 11 days.
Absolutely revolting. If student groups don’t riot over this, they’re apathetic cowards.
MadisonConservative on August 10, 2010 at 12:14 PM
Killin’ bebes is big money. But I’m sure all of the pro-choice groups are completely untainted by the stench of dirty capitalism and just want to kill babies for the good of all humanity.
29Victor on August 10, 2010 at 12:15 PM
alternate headline: “Booty-call bill comes due along with tuition”
ted c on August 10, 2010 at 12:16 PM
Abortion Insurance!?
canopfor on August 10, 2010 at 12:16 PM
alternate headline: “Booty-call bill comes due along with tuition”
ted c on August 10, 2010 at 12:16 PM
ted c: Dats a good one,haha!:)
canopfor on August 10, 2010 at 12:17 PM
Wow, always read the fine print!
milwife88 on August 10, 2010 at 12:17 PM
I call first amendment violation.
lorien1973 on August 10, 2010 at 12:18 PM
Sounds like something the babies should get, not the mothers.
29Victor on August 10, 2010 at 12:18 PM
I don’t see it as any worse than requiring students purchase a meal plan their first year, exception for the abortion aspect of course.
Esthier on August 10, 2010 at 12:19 PM
HUH? $774 for 4 or 5 physical exams with labs?
I took my daughter to the doctor a few weeks ago. She had some blood work done. Bill was $385. 1 visit.
angryed on August 10, 2010 at 12:20 PM
My sons attend/attended state universities in Oregon and Idaho and both require all students to have health insurance.
Fluffy McNutter on August 10, 2010 at 12:21 PM
Are there any other elective procedures covered by the plan? Seems odd that any elective would be covered at 80%.
forest on August 10, 2010 at 12:21 PM
Dang. That’s a bit extreme. The $774 is probably referring to cheaper clinics.
Esthier on August 10, 2010 at 12:22 PM
this will be fixed before school starts…
cmsinaz on August 10, 2010 at 12:23 PM
there you go again, Ed. You’re using that “common sense thing” and throwing the liberal meme all outta whack. Repeat after me, healfcare is a right, spread the wealth around, abortion is healfcare, opposing healfcare is antiwoman, antistudent, racist, and bigoted….or something like that./
ted c on August 10, 2010 at 12:24 PM
Wonder how long it will be before pro-life parents, who are footing the bills, rise up and demand this insurance mandate be rescinded?
GrannyDee on August 10, 2010 at 12:24 PM
pre med students doing the lab work.
lorien1973 on August 10, 2010 at 12:25 PM
Sign up for a cheap plan. Show proof of insurance at registration. Cancel your policy as soon as registration is over. That’s the easy way around this.
dczombie on August 10, 2010 at 12:27 PM
Add another notch for the culture of death.
Fuquay Steve on August 10, 2010 at 12:27 PM
Funny that hypocrisy. Liberal institutions rail against the “Insurance Companies” dropping coverage and such, yet, require students to have coverage so theys can come to college. It’s merely another revenue stream that flows to Utopia–and universities have revenue flowing into them like the Gulf has the Mississippi River. From mom and pop’s $$, to federal research $$$, to state research $$$, to alumni and donor $$$, and now more from student’s to borrow from to pay for and go into hock about—cash for abortions.
Is there a “Baby Daddy Fine” if the guys don’t pay?
ted c on August 10, 2010 at 12:27 PM
Condom rings worn into guys wallets will be a thing of the past.
Electrongod on August 10, 2010 at 12:27 PM
I guess. I prefer to spend a little more and know I am going to a doctor that didn’t just graduate from U of Granada Medical School
angryed on August 10, 2010 at 12:28 PM
Ed, please update. Ted Stevens is dead.
upinak on August 10, 2010 at 12:28 PM
Same reason Andean indigenous music and comparative dhimmitude classes are required to get a degree in hotel management. It’s just another piece of the comprehensive higher education scam. Kids are borrowing a bunch of money and spending it on whatever is “required”, so why not require health insurance too? Somebody is getting paid off of it.
forest on August 10, 2010 at 12:30 PM
Not only is the state of North Carolina mandating buying health insurance but they are mandating the provider. Have to wonder what the connections are between state officials and Pearce & Pearce, Inc.
The Pearce family stands to make millions out of this deal. The questions is, why? Why them? I smell a rat.
Follow the money.
fogw on August 10, 2010 at 12:30 PM
Can’t schools at every level just…teach?
Bishop on August 10, 2010 at 12:31 PM
What next- Ted’s Clam Shack now requires all customers to have health insurance? The Registrar of Voters now requires all all voters to have health insurance?
Little Boomer on August 10, 2010 at 12:31 PM
Ah.
That’s a fair choice, just not one I make. I’ll probably change my mind if I ever find myself needing a regular doctor.
Esthier on August 10, 2010 at 12:32 PM
I can totally believe this. Over the past few decades North Carolina Universities have turned so left it’s pathetic. Only the Ivy League and Northern California have us beat on the lib-meter.
THE CHOSEN ONE on August 10, 2010 at 12:32 PM
Here’s the thing about it…
If a college student gets sick, where will he go first? The college clinic. Without insurance he will get a bill and probably ignore it. I don’t really see the outrage in this requirement (abortion part is a separate issue).
This is different than O-Care. You can choose to attend college or not attend college. You have the option of attending a private college without the mandate. As opposed to O-Care which mandates you get insurance if you’re alive.
angryed on August 10, 2010 at 12:33 PM
Hey, wait a minute. Isn’t Obamacare supposed to make parents cover children up to the age of 25? So how can any student be without health insurance?
Yup! That’s probably a good idea….
JohnnyD on August 10, 2010 at 12:37 PM
Abortion Insurance!?
canopfor on August 10, 2010 at 12:16 PM
=========================================
Sounds like something the babies should get, not the mothers.
29Victor on August 10, 2010 at 12:18 PM
29Victor:Good idea,maybe the fathers,ahem,should buy that
insurance for their future/non future/son or
daughters!:)
canopfor on August 10, 2010 at 12:37 PM
Too bad insurance doesn’t cover academic kibitzerism.
GT on August 10, 2010 at 12:37 PM
Pearce & Pearce Inc. makes out like a bandit. Guaranteed premium with a cap on abortion expenses and the healthiest of our society as customers. Wonder how much they have to pay out in bribes or kickbacks for this!
Vince on August 10, 2010 at 12:38 PM
Can men also buy coverage for the “opt out of parenthood” insurance? That should cover child support too.
munseym on August 10, 2010 at 12:38 PM
Wait a tic,I thought the children were excluded
from the HealthCare bill,ala Liberal Screw-up!!
canopfor on August 10, 2010 at 12:39 PM
Can men also buy coverage for the “opt out of parenthood” insurance? That should cover child support too.
munseym on August 10, 2010 at 12:38 PM
munseym: Thats another good idea,boy,this thread is brain
storm’n!!:)
canopfor on August 10, 2010 at 12:40 PM
I don’t see the outrage either, because of the reason I listed above, but I don’t agree with your argument here. Sure, students are likely to go to the clinic, but there’s no more reason to expect them to ignore their medical bills than there is to expect them to ignore their phone bills.
Both can easily add up to more than the student can pay.
Esthier on August 10, 2010 at 12:42 PM
How the hell is it the school’s business whether or not the students have health insurance?
What’s next, are they going to make sure they floss correctly and do random condom inspections?
It’s unbelievable what we as Americans are putting up with these days.
NoDonkey on August 10, 2010 at 12:43 PM
Colleges have many forms of recourse to recoup these kinds of costs. The most obvious way to recoup unpaid medical expenses is to put a hold on student’s registration, campus prvileges, and grades just like they do with unpaid parking tickets, overdue library books and other unpaid fees. If you don’t pay your parking tickets they don’t let you register for classes the next semester and won’t release your transcripts if you decide to transfer, etc. They could just do the same thing if you go to their clinic and try to stiff them on the bill. So, no, forcing them to carry insurance doesn’t make sense.
dczombie on August 10, 2010 at 12:44 PM
Erskine Bowles.
mankai on August 10, 2010 at 12:46 PM
The only people that will riot will be the abortion folks if they repeal the elective abortion coverage.
We’ll hear about how the state is “violating their bodies”, blah, blah, blah.
ButterflyDragon on August 10, 2010 at 12:48 PM
Nice degree you could have there….it’d be a shame if we held it up for not paying your Baby Daddy Insurance….
/NC State Wolfpack
ted c on August 10, 2010 at 12:48 PM
If you like your abortionist, you can keep your abortionist.
Mojave Mark on August 10, 2010 at 12:49 PM
Get that peace of mind that your studies require and that you need during this time of your life…stop by the Student Union and sign up for your Baby Daddy Insurance!
ted c on August 10, 2010 at 12:49 PM
The forced insurance aside … the next big bubble to burst will be College/University Education. It is now seriously overpriced. People won’t be able to keep up in this kind of economy. Watch you are going to see Ivy-League try to get government bailouts and then State Universities.
willardcsmith on August 10, 2010 at 12:50 PM
Why trouble yourself during finals week with the worry about that booty call you had last Thursday night….? Stop by the bookstore and update your Baby Daddy Insurance.
ted c on August 10, 2010 at 12:50 PM
But if you have your own insurance you don’t have to buy into the school’s coverage. Seems to me a young person (faced with the alternative of having to pay for insurance through the school) could find a relatively cheap policy and not have to deal with Pearce at all.
Not exactly pegging my outrage meter. What am I missing?
DrSteve on August 10, 2010 at 12:52 PM
DrSteve on August 10, 2010 at 12:52 PM
That is true, I had a catastrophic policy when I was in grad school a decade ago, it was $50 a month.
That’s all any young healthy person needs in any case.
I wonder whether catastrophic policies will survive Obamacare.
We’ll all need to be insured for anything and everything most likely, whether we like it or not or need it or not.
NoDonkey on August 10, 2010 at 12:59 PM
I doubt that. I agree that they’re well overpriced, but they have long lists of people they wait list and even longer lists of people outright rejected.
Esthier on August 10, 2010 at 1:00 PM
Most schools require you to carry insurance. If you have insurance (and most students are covered under mom and dad’s plan), you generally have to go opt out.
Illinidiva on August 10, 2010 at 1:04 PM
What if they want to eat off campus?!
Akzed on August 10, 2010 at 1:06 PM
How many uninsured students are there? Hell, I thought most students could stay on their parent’s plans for damn-near eternity. Didn’t Obama say “children” up to the age of 26 could stay on their parent’s plans?
olesparkie on August 10, 2010 at 1:07 PM
Wow! This is fantastic! Of course this is constitutional as well, and if you challenge me I’ll pull some opinion outta my ass written by a big government progressive. Don’t ever ask me to argue the the Constitution or Bill of Rights themselves.
- Your friend in massive governmnet,
crr6
darwin on August 10, 2010 at 1:09 PM
You can do that too, but you still have to pay for a meal plan. It’s been years, but I think I remember that some of them were cheaper than others so that you weren’t necessarily paying for lunch and dinner every day, giving you more room to eat out without paying for lunch twice.
I don’t know if this is a common thing, but that’s how it was at Baylor when I was a freshman, and it was only for the freshmen, I think. If not, it was only for those staying in the dorms, which freshmen were required to do.
Esthier on August 10, 2010 at 1:14 PM
Most schools (private included) require health insurance coverage of some kind while students are enrolled. The reason is simple: if it’s not, a student who becomes injured or ill while attending class tends to think it’s the responsibility of the school to treat them for free. Kind of like a homeowner’s liability policy that covers the cost of a slip and fall for a guest; to remove the expectation of coverage, they say that you are responsible for your own medical expenses.
That said, our school simply requires a policy. We do not dictate what is covered or the amount of the deductible. We have had a light fixture in the ER fall on one of our students (causing a slight injury) that we had to force the hospital to pay. If a student got in an accident while interning on an ambulance, that’s where their insurance kicks in (unless they can bill it to the guy who ran into the ambulance.)
spudmom on August 10, 2010 at 1:21 PM
Since “minor” been redefined to mean up to the age of 26 when it comes to “health care” coverage, isn’t this forcing them to get coverage twice?
Buy Danish on August 10, 2010 at 1:21 PM
The real news is that kids are still enrolling in state-run universities.
Hey parents, those state-run “universities” do not “educate” your kids.
I thought everybody knew that but apparently not.
jeff_from_mpls on August 10, 2010 at 1:22 PM
I don’t see how. If they have it through their parents, they have it. They aren’t part of the uninsured.
Esthier on August 10, 2010 at 1:30 PM
The University of Illinois also requires affirmative demonstration of existing comprehensive health insurance, or they require you to buy it from them. Have for years.
And you know they are doing abortions there, right?
Jaibones on August 10, 2010 at 1:30 PM
They’re not all the same. Some are significantly better than some private schools. But all are significantly cheaper, especially if you state in your state of residence.
Esthier on August 10, 2010 at 1:32 PM
I don’t mind the college picking one plan to sponsor and sticking to it as the best choice for its campus. Induced abortion ought to be a covered service as far as I’m concerned, since pregnancy involved pain and peril that ending the pregnancy early can mitigate or prevent.
HOWEVER the furor over those being forced to pay for abortions over their strong moral objections is entirely justified.
I hope the real issue, which underlies other controversy about forced insurance purchase, gets some attention along with that moral upset.
NO ONE SHOULD BE FORCED TO BUY INSURANCE TO ATTEND COLLEGE.
the end.
SarahW on August 10, 2010 at 1:38 PM
The same company is the mandatory insurance provider at the state university my daughter will be attending this fall. (Not in North Carolina.) We have exhausted our COBRA, my husband’s new job doesn’t offer benefits, and we both have pre-existing conditions that prevent us from getting an individual policy (unless we want to pay $2,400 PER MONTH). I actually want my daughter to have health insurance and compared to what we were paying for COBRA, this is a bargain. However, I intend to read the plan carefully. If abortion coverage is included, the university and the insurance company will be hearing from me.
doppelganglander on August 10, 2010 at 1:48 PM
Thank You Judas Stupak!
Wander on August 10, 2010 at 1:57 PM
Also known as the Fxxk’em & Forget’em health benefit.
I guess that is why guys have to pay for the coverage too.
barnone on August 10, 2010 at 2:18 PM
Not true. Out-of-state tuition at a number of state schools is just as high as private school tuition. My sister paid around $35K for two semesters (in a trimester system) at U. of Cincinnati. We finally talked sense into her and she moved back to go to an in-state state school, but the idea that state schools are a lot cheaper is no more, unless you stay close to home.
alwaysfiredup on August 10, 2010 at 2:22 PM
when i went to college in MA in the early 80′s, health insurance was required for admittance to state colleges. and a ‘student life fee’ was on the bill that went to MASSPIRG (MA public interest research group). i think one could opt out of the MASSPIRG fee( can’t remember) but definitely not the insurance.
i was still under my mother’s work policy at the time but i recall thinking in 1982- what right does the state have to demand you purchase health insurance and fund ‘consumer group’? welcome to Massachusetts everyone.
mittens on August 10, 2010 at 2:24 PM
Ok, I’ve done the college thing twice now. Back in the 80′s, I went to University of Rochester which had an associated School of Medicine. Students were only required to pay a student health services fee, which was pooled to provide a basic “free clinic” style panoply of services, probably more STD treatment than anything else, frankly.
For the big stuff, you could go to the hospital or clinic or whatever but you were treated like any other patient. Show your insurance or don’t or whatever. None of the school’s business. Why do they care if you break your leg?
Fast forward to University of Minnesota, but same all around the Twin Cities. You must show proof of insurance to attend school. They conduct random audits, they say. If you don’t, you are signed up for and billed for campus health services which covers “expenses resulting from…abortion and miscarriage” which isn’t quite the same thing as abortion. The plan does not cover elective services, though contraceptive pills are covered, somehow. I could not find where it covered abortion, in writing, but sometimes it’s buried under “outpatient physicians’ services” though not explicitly. I will reserve that judgment until better information is gleened.
winoceros on August 10, 2010 at 2:48 PM
Same for me in the 70′s at LSU. It was something like $35 a semester. But I was in ROTC anyway.
barnone on August 10, 2010 at 2:55 PM
When my daughters went to two different Georgia Schools, they had very nice clinics that were paid by the student fees. They had to pay for their meds but they were discounted. We had insurance, but we never used it the whole time they were in school.
jeannie on August 10, 2010 at 3:08 PM
As an ulum of the esteemed UNC system… let me say that it (the General Administration and the 16 member institutions) is run by wild-eyed, Che-lovin’ communists.
/the bleedin’ obvious
mankai on August 10, 2010 at 3:24 PM
Do the guys have to buy abortion coverage or they already made their contribute to the cause.
tjexcite on August 10, 2010 at 3:55 PM
That is a logical conclusion… it’s not an equal world if only women can terminate accountability.
Of course we all know Liberals are devoid of logic… and will always be that way.
scotash on August 10, 2010 at 4:18 PM
Pregnancy is a disease. Get with the program.
clement on August 10, 2010 at 4:58 PM
An abortion can cause a lifetime of pain and regrets, that far outweigh the danger of pregnancy.
Slowburn on August 10, 2010 at 6:10 PM
Hey now, don’t pick on the least liberal of all the state schools in NC. /alma mater
citrus on August 10, 2010 at 6:38 PM
Hmmmm.
Under ObamaCare “children” are covered by the parents healthcare until age 26.
Soooo. Why are these schools requiring the students to buy healthcare?
Extra profit squeezed out of the students like delicious cold orange juice. Juice those students North Carolina.
Juice them good. Juice them sweet sweet extra fees.
memomachine on August 10, 2010 at 9:07 PM