Seriously Ill College Students Should Only Have to Worry About Getting Well
07/18/08 | Comment (0)
by Brigette Courtot, Policy Analyst
National Women’s Law Center
This post is part of a weekly series on Women and Health Reform.
What does a college student worry about? The last time I spoke with my younger sister—a rising college senior—she was fretting over how to schedule her fall classes so that Fridays were completely free. Tough life, right? But the truth is some college students have much graver matters to worry about, such as fighting a life-threatening illness like cancer. With all that those students and their families face on day-to-day basis, there is one thing that should not ever top their list of concerns: keeping their health insurance.
But after a college student named Michelle Morse was diagnosed with colon cancer, she found that it was impossible to take the leave-of-absence from her studies that she needed to fight her cancer and remain on her parent’s health insurance plan as a dependent student. Her insurance policy required full-time student status, so even while undergoing chemotherapy treatments, Michelle had to take a full course load just to keep her coverage.
