How does the Affordable Healthcare Act affect students?

I’m a college student. How does the Affordable Care Act affect me?

"The first thing students need to know is that if they DO have student insurance through their college or university, that’s been deemed to satisfy the requirement that individuals have health insurance starting in 2014.

If you can’t afford the insurance your school offers or your school doesn’t offer coverage, you might fall into one of a few categories.

First, if you’re a full-time student and you’re not working, or if you’re working just part-time, you probably don’t earn enough to trigger the requirement to have health insurance. It applies only to people who earn enough to have to file income taxes; that’s just under $10,000 this year for a single person under age 65.

But what if you WANT insurance? Well, if you’re under 26 and your parents are insured, you’re in luck. One popular part of the law lets young adults stay on their parents’ health insurance plans until they turn 26. In states that opt to expand Medicaid, that will also become an option for many college and graduate students. It’s for people who earn up to 133 percent of poverty, or about $15,000 a year for an individual. But only about half the states are planning to expand Medicaid."

Source: NPR