Oct 12 2009
A new federal law took effect Friday, allowing seriously ill or injured college students to keep their parents' insurance for up to a year while they take time off from school.
The Associated Press reports: "Michelle's Law allows college students to take up to a year off school for medical reasons and remain on their family's health insurance plan. It is named for 22-year-old Michelle Morse, who died of colon cancer in 2005 six months after graduating from Plymouth (N.H.) State University.
"Against her doctor's advice, the aspiring teacher maintained a full course load while undergoing chemotherapy because she otherwise would have been dropped from her parents' health insurance plan."
A similar law was first enacted in New Hampshire in 2006 following a campaign by Morse's family. The New Hampshire delegation in Congress championed the bill there and it passed last year (Ramer, 10/9).
 This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
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