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S 3011Health Insurance

Education - Post-Secondary Student Health Insurance Plan Act

Colleges cannot automatically sign students up for health insurance; students must actively accept or reject coverage before registering.

Introduced37 Yea0 Nay1 Not voting
Population
Affected
15
Email Legislator
Introduced Mar 5, 2026Committee Senate Education

Plain-English Summary

This legislation prohibits Rhode Island colleges and universities, both public and private, from automatically enrolling students in a student health insurance plan. Instead, institutions must require students to actively accept or reject the coverage through a specific prompt on their tuition bill. A student cannot complete their registration or admission until they have made this choice in writing or electronically. While schools cannot charge students for insurance they have rejected, they maintain the right to require students to have some form of health insurance to attend. Records of these choices must be kept for three years.

For younger readers

When students go to college, they usually need health insurance to see a doctor. Sometimes, colleges automatically sign students up for the school's insurance plan and charge them for it without asking. This bill stops colleges from doing that. Now, the college must specifically ask the student to say "yes" or "no" to the insurance plan. The student cannot start school until they answer this question. This helps make sure students and their families do not pay for insurance they do not need or want.

Who & Where It Applies

Impacted groups
College studentsParents of college studentsPrivate colleges and universitiesPublic colleges and universitiesOffice of the Post-Secondary Commissioner
Impacted communities
All

Constitutional & Fiscal Check

None Likely

Estimated cost
None
Estimated revenue
None

Bill Analysis

Both viewpoints
For Progressives
  • Protects students and low-income families from predatory billing practices and unexpected fees associated with automatic enrollment in costly insurance plans they may not need.
  • Ensures that students already covered by Medicaid or their parents' insurance are not financially burdened by redundant coverage, preserving their financial resources for education and living expenses.
  • Increases transparency and empowers students to make informed decisions about their healthcare coverage rather than being subjected to passive consent mechanisms.
  • Could potentially destabilize the risk pool for student health insurance plans if many healthy students opt out, possibly driving up premiums for those who genuinely rely on the college's plan.
  • Increases the risk that a student might hastily reject coverage to save money and end up uninsured if the verification of alternative coverage is not rigorously enforced.
  • Places an administrative tracking burden on public institutions like URI and RIC, potentially diverting minor resources away from other student support services.
For Conservatives
  • Promotes individual liberty and personal responsibility by requiring students to make an active, affirmative choice regarding their insurance purchase rather than being subject to a default mandate.
  • Increases market transparency and prevents institutions from generating revenue through "hidden" fees or passive billing that consumers did not explicitly agree to.
  • Aligns with contract law principles that generally require mutual assent for a transaction, preventing businesses from presuming consent for a service.
  • Imposes government regulations on the business practices of private colleges and universities, interfering with their internal billing and enrollment procedures.
  • Expands the regulatory authority of the Office of the Post-Secondary Commissioner, increasing bureaucracy and government oversight of higher education institutions.
  • Creates a mandatory record-keeping burden for businesses (private colleges), requiring them to store specific data points for three years, which adds to compliance costs.

Votes

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Full Bill Text

Changes to existing Rhode Island law · 30 additions

SECTION 1. Title 16 of the General Laws entitled "EDUCATION" is hereby amended by adding thereto the following chapter: 16-117-1. Short Title. This chapter shall be known and may be cited as the “Post-Secondary Student Health Insurance Plan Act”. 16-117-2. Definitions. For purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall be defined as follows:

(1) “Institution(s) of higher education” means a public or private college or university located in the State of Rhode Island.

(2) “Student” means any student of an institution of higher education regardless of the number of credits for which the student is or intends to be enrolled. 16-117-3. Applicability. This chapter shall apply to all public and private institutions of higher education recognized by the office of the post-secondary commissioner. 16-117-4. Affirmative plan enrollment required.

(a) No institution of higher education shall automatically enroll any student in a student health insurance plan. Institutions of higher education shall provide on a tuition bill a prompt for the student to expressly accept or reject the student health insurance plan. No application for admission or registration shall be accepted as complete by an institution of higher education unless and until a student has affirmatively expressly accepted or rejected the student health insurance plan coverage in writing or by affirmation through an electronic platform.

(b) An institution of higher education shall not assess any fees or premiums for student health insurance coverage upon any student who has rejected coverage.

(c) Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to prevent any institution of higher education from requiring all students to maintain health insurance coverage as a condition of attending the institution of higher education. 16-117-5. Recordkeeping. All institutions of higher education shall maintain records of all student elections to accept or reject coverage by a student health insurance plan for a minimum of three (3) years. 16-117-6. Enforcement. The office of the post-secondary commissioner shall promulgate regulations to enforce compliance with this chapter.

SECTION 2. This act shall take effect on January 1, 2027.