As of October, 2008, health plans will have to re-evaluate how they cover full time student dependants.  Proposed legislation (H.R.2851) recently signed into law by President Bush, will make it mandatory that health plans which cover full time student dependants allow those dependants to remain covered for up to a year out of school, if they are on sick leave with a physician certified illness.  This, after numerous youths have had to choose between coverage, and taking time off to care for their serious ailments. 

This law is named for Michelle Morse who recently passed away due to cancer.  Morse had to face the difficult choice of leaving school to care for her ailment (and losing health care coverage in the process), and staying in school to preserve coverage (but not adequately caring for herself).  The law was already official in the State of New Hampshire since June 22, 2006 with similar laws enacted in nine other States. 

The Bill will take effect next year. 

For more information, please feel free to visit: http://www.michelleslaw.com/ and http://www.opencongress.org/bill/110-h2851/show.

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This entry was posted by Adam V. Russo on Wednesday, October 29th, 2008 at 7:58 am and is filed under New Hampshire. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.