Duke OKs student health insurance coverage for sex reassignment
Duke OKs student health insurance coverage for sex reassignment
Sexual reassignment surgery for transgendered students will be covered in students’ health care plans, effective this Fall.
Administrators signed a new contract with Duke’s health insurance provider, Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina, that will include up to $50,000 to cover sexual reassignment surgery, Dean of Students Sue Wasiolek confirmed. With this new coverage, she said, all vital aspects of transgender health care—counseling, hormone therapy, and surgery—are now included in students’ plans.
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The additional coverage will have a “minimal” impact on cost to students, Wasiolek said. The coverage will cause a 0.3 percent increase to student costs.
Overall, student health care premiums will increase by a total of 8 percent next year, Wasiolek said.
“The plan premium is increasing 8 percent next year, with 4 percent of that increase resulting from taxes associated with the Affordable Care Act,” she said. “The remaining 4 percent is attributed to health care cost trend and benefit enhancements.”
http://www.dukechronicle.com/articles/2013/04/16/duke-oks-student-health-insurance-coverage-sex-reassignment
So how is it exactly that the ACA is causing premiums to go up? Or are they just blowing smoke and using it as a reason to increase costs by 4%? I did find some info that that states that the ACA "...imposes a new $100 billion tax on health insurance. The tax will start at $8 billion in 2014, increasing to $14.3 billion in 2018, and will continue to increase each year." which one could assume would be passed on to people who have insurance.
I am wondering where the savings come in from the whole plan at this point versus more people buying insurance and increasing the bottom line for insurers.