Historically black college cancels student health plans, cites high cost of Obamacare as reason

Historically black college cancels student health plans, cites high cost of Obamacare as reason

Bowie State UAccording to the latest Pew Research poll, blacks continue to give Barack Obama stratospheric marks for the job he’s doing, with 82% of expressing approval of his handling of his job responsibilities. When asked in a Quinnipac University poll whether they find Obama honest and trustworthy, 81% of blacks again answered affirmatively.

Whether these numbers reflect racism — that blacks are judging the nation’s first black president by the color of his skin rather than the content of his character — they seem to suggest that people of color are not paying attention. Under Obama, unemployment among blacks has remained 2.2 times the rate for whites. What’s more is that welfare spending, which disproportionately affects blacks, has jumped up 32%. Only a person whose views are tainted by the soft bigotry of low expectations would see this trend as a positive trend.

Now a news story at Campus Reform suggests that even blacks with lofty ambitions are being hurt by Obama, or rather by his signature health care program. The report notes that Bowie State, one of the nation’s oldest and most elite historically black colleges, has cancelled a school-wide health care plan that they had offered students.

The  school, which is less than an hour’s drive from Washington D.C., has a statement at its website that reads:

Bowie State University has suspended offering health insurance for domestic students for the 2013-2014 academic year. Due to new requirements of the Affordable Care Act which will go into effect on January 1, 2014, the cost of insurance for domestic students will increase to approximately $1800 per year.

The student health insurance plan had cost students $50 per semester, but under the new plan, the premium will rise $900 per semester, representing an 1800% increase.

Campus Reform points out that in August of this year, White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest indicated at a press briefing that Obama was bullish in support of the country’s historically black colleges and universities, noting that “funding for those colleges and universities has increased under President Obama.”

Earnest also let slip that the president “has a bias in favor of historically black colleges and universities because of the service they provide and because of the quality education that they provide to their students.”

Wait, the president’s spokesman admits that he has a bias toward historically black colleges? And that’s somehow supposed to be admirable?

In any case, if the situation at Bowie State is any indication of how his prejudice in favor of black schools manifests itself, I’d hate to imagine what faces schools to which is indifferent.

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Howard Portnoy

Howard Portnoy

Howard Portnoy has written for The Blaze, HotAir, NewsBusters, Weasel Zippers, Conservative Firing Line, RedCounty, and New York’s Daily News. He has one published novel, Hot Rain, (G. P. Putnam’s Sons), and has been a guest on Radio Vice Online with Jim Vicevich, The Alana Burke Show, Smart Life with Dr. Gina, and The George Espenlaub Show.

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