College students have much to rejoice for in health care reform bill

Whether you agree with the passage of the health care bill or not, you'll have a hard time convincing college students it's a bad idea. Provided the bill makes it through the reconciliation process intact, college students are going to greatly benefit.

This is largely due to section 2714, Extension of Dependent Coverage. It states: "In General, a group health plan and a health insurance issuer offering group or individual health insurance coverage that provides dependent coverage of children shall continue to make such coverage available for an adult child (who is not married) until the child turns 26 years of age."

In addition to students being able to retain coverage from their parents throughout college and beyond, the health care bill is likely to have other residual benefits:

• The percentage of students with parental coverage will increase. Currently 67% of college students are covered by their parents' employee sponsored insurance payments. With the new laws in place, this number will increase dramatically. More parents will have health insurance due to increased population coverage, and those parents will also be able to cover their college age students medical needs with their family policies.