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t h e i n de pe n de n t s t u de n t n e w spa pe r of s y r acuse , n e w yor k
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Fracked up An activist group on campus
Insuring the future Students should consider
Double take Two SU undergraduates
Kicking back Class of 2014 recruit
Run for your life Participants dressed up in
raises awareness about hydrofracking’s harmful consequences. Page 3
have their artwork shown in the Shaffer Art Building. Page 9
health insurance plans now, rather than later. Page 5
Rodney Williams is rehabbing a broken fibula. Page 16
NATIONAL A
A look at Obamacare’s effect on SU students
PRESCRIPTION MARK YOUR CALENDAR March 23, 2010
MARCH
23
The day the Affordable Care Act was signed into law
Oct. 1, 2013
OCTOBER
1
JAN
1
MARCH
31
The day open enrollment in the Health Insurance Marketplace began
2014
Locally
The mandate
300 Nationally
When the next open enrollment period will begin
Seven percent of undergraduates at SU are uninsured, according to an SU survey sent to parents
About 300 students on SU’s domestic health care plan
March 31, 2014
October 2014
OCTOBER
bout a month after the website to purchase insurance under the Affordable Care Act went live, there are still many questions about what this means for students. ekmeyers@syr.edu
WHY PEOPLE ARE AGAINST IT
700-800
The day open enrollment in the Health Insurance Marketplace will temporarily close
STAFF WRITER
HOW IS THIS AFFECTING YOU?
Jan. 1, 2014
The soonest coverage can begin
By Ellen Meyers
“Because of the mandate, which increases costs an average about $3,000 per individual, it has just become unsustainable,” said Dimitri Skambas, the vice chairman of Syracuse University’s College Republicans. “As college students, we’re disappointing ourselves for getting less quality insurance for a much higher price.”
700-800 students on SU’s international health care plan
27.2 percent of the 19-25 age group in the United States in 2012 were uninsured.
Source: census.gov
TERMS TO KNOW Deductible – How much you
owe for health care services before your health insurance or plan begins to pay
Health Insurance Marketplace – A place to
compare, choose and enroll in coverage
Affordable Care Act mandate – A mandate that states all
citizens need to be insured Healthcare.gov – The website Americans can use to apply for health care Obamacare – Another term for the Affordable Care Act
graphic illustrations by lizzie hart | presentation director
Some oppose Obamacare on the ideological grounds that the government should not mandate the purchase of health care, and some believe Obamacare may make insurance more expensive.
THREE THINGS TO KNOW 1. The penalty for not having health insurance in 2014 is a fine of $95 or 1 percent of your household income, whichever is greater. No one making less than $10,000 will pay the penalty.
2. You can apply for health care coverage by phone, online, by mail or in person.
3. Some of the cheaper plans have deduct-
ibles between $3,000 and $5,000, which is almost the same as being uninsured, said Ben Domingo, director of Syracuse University Health Services.
Employers
Skambas said he dislikes the Obamacare program because it requires employers to provide employees health care, which he said they often could not afford.
Colleges dropping coverage
Skambas said there are many instances of colleges across the country dropping their health
insurance coverage for students because Obamacare requires plans to provide more coverage. According to a June 4, 2012 Wall Street Journal article, schools like Bethany College in Kansas, Lenoir-Rhyne University in North Carolina, University of Puget Sound in Washington and Cornell College in Iowa have all dropped their schoolsponsored health insurance plans. “The demise of low-cost, low-benefit health plans for students is a consequence of the 2010 health-care overhaul,” according to the article.
The site
Currently, the website to apply for health care under Obamacare also has its faults. Applicants have gotten error messages and have been timed out on the website while trying to apply. President Barack Obama said the government is currently doing “everything we can possibly do to get the websites working better, faster, sooner.”
LOOKING TOWARD THE FUTURE Ben Domingo, the director of SU Health Services, said the economic consequences of the Affordable Care Act are still uncertain because it’s still too early to predict. He said there needs to be usage history to predict where the program will go, and a lot of it will depend on young people signing up for health care.
“The exchanges are likely to get more competitive, which means the prices are going to be reduced. If we were not able to get enough participation in our plan because people are going off to the exchanges, then we wouldn’t be able to offer one.”
various costumes for the Halloween Fun Run. See dailyorange.com
Say Yes receives $50k grant By Alfred Ng ASST. NEWS EDITOR
Say Yes to Education received a $50,000 donation on Monday, which will add to the program’s scholarship fund for participating students. The added funding is coming from First Niagara Foundation and will be used for Say Yes’ scholarship program, said Pat Driscoll, director of operations at Say Yes in Syracuse. Say Yes celebrated the event at a middle school in Syracuse, Driscoll said, with an appearance by SU head men’s basketball coach Jim Boeheim. In the last two years, Boeheim has donated $20,000 to Say Yes’ summer camp program through the Jim and Juli Boeheim Foundation. “(They) have been very supportive of the summer camp program for young people in grades K through the fifth grade,” Driscoll said. The nationwide nonprofit program came to Syracuse in 2007 and provides financial and academic support for inner-city students. Syracuse was the first citywide implementation of Say Yes. The nonprofit provides students with a college education by helping to pay for their tuition. Schools such as Cornell University, Dartmouth College and Rice University offer full ride scholarships for students involved in the Say Yes to Education program. It’s partnered with 130 schools across the country, including Syracuse University. The $50,000 donation is part of the First Niagara Foundation’s Mentoring Matters, a $1 million donation that will also provide funding to mentoring programs in New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Massachusetts, according to a First Niagara news release on Monday. Since 2007, the foundation has provided more than $5.25 million in financial support for mentoring programs. “Mentoring matters because it can change a young person’s life for the
SEE SAY YES PAGE 8