The archetype of the poor college student, many find, is an unfortunate truth. But there is one thing more students can now afford: health care.

This is thanks to the passage of the Affordable Care Act, signed into law by President Obama on March 23, 2010. This act was controversial, but a National Institute of Health study released in late September showed that it has been beneficial to the student population.

The act allows young adults to stay on their parents' insurance plans until they turn 26, and this small part of it alone has allowed 1 million more people in the U.S. ages 19-25 to have health care coverage. In 2010 before the act's passage, 66.1 percent of people in that age group had health care coverage, but as of March 31, 2011, 69.6 percent now do, said Kathleen Sebelius, the U.S. secretary for Health and Human Services.

But on a UW-La Crosse level, this gain in coverage for college-age people hasn't created much change. The Student Health Center's director, Dr. Brian Allen, said, "Coverage for students at UW-L hasn't changed much [since the bill's passage,] but there's been an increase in Western Technical College students with coverage." This may be because WTC has more students not classed as dependents on their parents' taxes, a condition for providing health care to those over 18 on some family plans before the reform was passed, or because students at UW-L are simply more likely to already be insured.

At UW-L, medical care at the Student Health Center is largely covered by student tuition and fees, although a charge for some tests, medications and supplies may be added to one's student bill. "This lowers our overhead by about 30 percent because by not billing insurance companies, we save on administrative costs," said Allen.

Having a health insurance plan isn't required for students, but they are strongly encouraged to obtain insurance, since any care the health center can't do must then be paid out of pocket. "I think it's important that all our students have health insurance, because you never know when an accident will happen," said Chancellor Joe Gow.

An insurance plan can also be bought through Student Assurance for UW-L students who aren't on their family's plan.

"This plan pools UW-L students with students from all of the other UW schools except Madison and Milwaukee to keep premiums low," said Allen. This works by allowing the members of the pool, in this case schools which join together, to have greater clout and buying power than they would have individually.

Greater buying power shifts the balance of power toward the buyer of the insurance and can thus create lower premiums. This is the idea behind requiring all individuals nationwide to have insurance as well, creating larger insurance pools.

Though they may be living on ramen noodles, students able to stay on their families' insurance plans at least have one less thing to worry about.