A bigger pool keeps program costs in line by avoiding adverse selection. That's a simpler explanation.

"A bigger pool keeps" PSU's probable 7% of the premium higher also.

PSU will give a student a waiver only if the other insurance is "as good or better" than PSU's plan. "As good or better" means no more than a $1,000 deductible and must include prescriptions and mental health coverage in addition to in- and out-patient medical benefits.

I guess if I were unlucky enough to still be a student at PSU I’d be stuck having to pay for a second insurance coverage. I chose a high deductible policy where I work because I can afford to pay the deductible if I ever needed medical treatment.

It amazes me that here, like at the federal level, I have to purchase insurance for routine treatment even though I can to pay the cost out of my own pocket. Geezz, if Bill Gates was a student here he’d have to pay for the insurance even though he could buy PSU several time over!

PSU students are getting a bit of price break, but the prescription drug coverage looks like it adds about $40 a month, which is $480 a year.

Here are the private plans that satisfy PSU's requirements. The top one is crossed out because it doesn't cover prescription drugs.

Welcome to PSU, where it is our goal to blur the line between matriculation and assimilation.

Given the demographics of the collage population somebody is making a helluva lot o money on this deal.
My current health insurance with the $1500 deductible would to qualify.
Seems to ke that the insurance companies are robbing the students!

When I was attending PSU the school cut a lucrative deal with credit card company so that all financial aid came through that company on your card and it was also a mandatory ID card. You had to opt out of the card also being a credit card. Like that time this wasn't done to benefit the students it was done to benefit the school. PSU must be getting some financial reimbursement from the insurance company to make this mandatory.

A bigger pool keeps program costs in line by avoiding adverse selection. That's a simpler explanation.

What's a "simpler explanation" for your inability or unwillingness to see any chance of corruption here?

When government dictates, everything becomes simpler - no choice involved.

You like that for the great unwashed, don't you?

Ah yes, centralized control of health care is such a good thing.

The key to the "WHY" lies deep within the bank account of some administration officials and a "consulting fee".

Check out the PSU "Student Health Care Advocate" in the comments. If it's now mandatory, why is an advocate needed?

How is this essentially different from the "Affordable Care Act?"

It is different from the Afforable Care Act. Under that act you don't have to buy insurance.If you do not there is a penalty "In 2014, the penalty is either $95 for every adult and $47.50 for every child under the age of 18 in the household (up to $285 for a family), or 1 percent of taxable income for the household, whichever is larger.

In 2015, it's $325 for every adult and $162.50 for every child (up to $975 for a family), or 2 percent of taxable income, whichever is larger.
" Under the PSU plan you must have insurance period.

One used to have to opt IN to campus health insurance, now students have to opt OUT? Students are already being gouged enough by public higher education - the price of insurance could cover the cost of books for the year, and those are outrageous and getting worse. It is lunatic to force people to buy something they do not want and cannot afford just to get an education. Next thing you know students will all have to buy uniforms, for their own good of course. Where does it stop? They have students by the throat for no good reason other than the nanny state's whine that "it's good for them." Isn't there a law against this stuff? If not, there should be otherwise there will just be more and more of it. The Road to Serfdom is paved with good intentions (along with a good measure of greed).

"It is different from the Afforable Care Act. Under that act you don't have to buy insurance.If you do not there is a penalty"

Don't worry, the ObamaCare tax for not buying insurance will soon be jacked up to the point where you will have to buy insurance, whether you want to or not.

One of the key pillars of ObamaCare is that healthy young people are forced to buy insurance, priced at a level far more expensive than the cost required to provide medical care to healthy young people - with the difference going to expanding insurance coverage, paying for administration, and whatnot.

PSU is simply providing a glimpse of the happy future!

uhh, aren't most people under 26 covered by their parents health plan per obamacare? Aren't most attending PSU under 26? What authority do they have to mandate you have healthcare as "good" as they say?

Just another statist assault, unsuprizing coming from the State Temple of Propaganda.

*Comparable coverage will require no more than a $1,000 deductible, include prescriptions and Mental Health coverage in addition to In- and Out-patient medical benefits.

Wow, as if the financial burden of tuition, books, and living costs plus the loan/debt students are left with isn't enough, now they are mandated to have insurance that includes prescriptions and Mental Health coverage. I see another pattern here, create a problem, make more money on the solution, perhaps after all that, the students may just need a nice dose of antidepressants just to deal with all of this.

At least there's an opt-out now. Four years ago I took First Year Japanese at PSU as a post-bacc student - it's a 5 credit class. This meant I was automatically enrolled in their crappy health plan (it didn't cover pre-existing conditions, for example), and there was NO OPT OUT option. I was also covered under a really excellent plan from my husband's employer. Because the PSU plan would have become my primary insurance, the way these things work under the law, I would have ended up paying a lot more out of pocket to treat my pre-existing chronic health condition than if I DIDN'T have the stupid PSU insurance!!! It took about two months of back and forth emails and phone calls with the insurance coordinator to get myself unenrolled from the PSU plan - and with NO REFUND of the fee. I had the privilege each term of paying several hundred dollars for a health plan that would have cost me hundreds more dollars out of my pocket had I stayed on the plan. At the time I was just stunned that they had no opt-out. Must have been a nice racket for PSU while it lasted though, since they got to keep my money, but provide no services for it.

Claire,
Your experience of back and forth sounds frustrating enough to want a person to reconsider going to PSU. It seems to me that one should have a choice, whether you want to remain on your plan or do the student plan or to opt out completely from any mandate by the University. Is this a federal mandate now? All this for a 5 hr. credit class or more? I thought health-plan changes were going to be implemented in 2014? Why should you have been forced to change if your current plan covered pre-existing conditions? More intrusions into one's life and more insanity.