University of Missouri ends funding for graduate student health insurance, blames feds
The notice, sent to the university's graduate students on
"The Affordable Care Act prevents employers from giving employees money specifically so they can buy health insurance on the individual market," the university stated in a letter posted online. "Graduate teaching and research assistants are classified as employees by the
Graduate students have to buy insurance in individual markets because they aren't eligible for the insurance plan offered to
Earlier this year, the
The
"In a nutshell, the
In this case, the university can pay the students more but can only encourage the students to use the extra funds on health insurance. They can't force the students to earmark the additional compensation for health insurance, according to
To make up for the last minute change, the university says it will offer a one-time fellowship to certain graduate students who can then choose to use the extra fellowship money to purchase coverage. But now there will be less money for each student, according to the university.
"In the past, we provided subsidies only for the students who enrolled in the student insurance plan," the letter reads. "However, we now need to distribute the same amount of money over the entire population of eligible students, thus reducing the amount we can provide to each student."
In 2014, about 3,100 graduate students at the
It's unclear if the new fellowship funds will be offered for next school year.
Bloom says the current situation universities face regarding this issue is an "unanticipated consequence" of the regulation. His organization is working with the
"There have been no changes by any schools to graduate students' subsidy," McGinn said. She did not clarify whether there would be future changes to the program.
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