Boston University students were largely enthusiastic about Sunday’s passage of a historic health care bill following months of partisan debate.
Many students said they supported the health care reform described in the bill because it provides coverage for a wider variety of people in a difficult economic time.
“It’s definitely going to help people,” said College of Arts and Sciences sophomore Gaurav Misra. “The Republicans were arguing that it’s taxing the rich and giving to the poor, but I don’t have any problem with that. I think it definitely gets a lot of fairness into the system.”
Students also said the health care bill would be beneficial for young people struggling to find jobs during the recession.
CAS sophomore Amanda Kmetz cited the provision stating that children can be covered under their parents’ insurance until the age of 26 as an example of this.
“I’d say that it’s especially relevant for college students because when this passes, we’re going to be able to stay on our parents’ health insurance until we’re 26 and that’s definitely something that’s worried me before,” she said.
Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences freshman Emily Traglia echoed this sentiment.
“It’s nice that you can stay under your parents’ insurance until you’re 26,” she said. “My sister just graduated from college a few years ago, and she doesn’t have employment insurance yet, so this is really useful for her.”
School of Education sophomore Rachel Tochiki also said the bill would be helpful to her family members.
“My brother graduates next year, and he needs health insurance,” she said.”He had a liver transplant a few years ago and has Aspergers’ so he needs a lot of medication and can’t find a job, so it’s really important that he be under our parents’ plan.”
However, some students also expressed opposition toward the plan and some of its aspects.
CAS sophomore Melanie Helmer said the cost of expanding coverage could be harmful.
“I think a lot of things like this end up hurting the middle class, because they have to pay the health care for the lower class,” she said.
CAS freshman Tony Joudi also said the new system could have a negative impact on the quality of health care people receive.
“I feel as though by national health care passing, a doctor’s sense of freedom and reputability is limited and patient care for future generations will be substantially reduced,” he said.
College of Fine Arts junior Mark Stys said he supported passage of the bill, despite complaints from Republicans about its cost.
“I’m very glad that health care finally passed,” Stys said. He added that although he thought many Republicans were intimidated by the high cost of the bill, it was worth it because of its potential to reach millions of people.
“It’s a good thing in general,” said CAS freshman Jessica Poprik.”In my high school, we learned about different kinds of health care used around the world and after studying all of them I’m definitely for universal health care.”
Staff writers Jaime Lutz, Meaghan Beatley and Suzanne Schiavone contributed reporting to this story.
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
