photo by: Nick Krug

A bus whirs by as University of Kansas students wait along Jayhawk Boulevard on Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2016.

Graduate students at the University of Kansas won’t lose their KU-subsidized health insurance next summer after all, thanks to newly issued federal guidance.

KU graduate students were notified in late September that because of an Affordable Care Act mandate KU would not be able to offer health insurance subsidies after summer 2017.

The decision to pull the subsidies was based on February 2016 U.S. Department of Labor guidance that said health insurance premium reductions like those enjoyed by graduate students were not in compliance with the Affordable Care Act and would need to end in 2017.

On Friday, the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Center for Consumer Information & Insurance Oversight released a document saying that universities can, in fact, continue offering subsidized health insurance to graduate students who also work for the university. According to the document, the federal government’s “enforcement relief” will last “pending further guidance.”

KU will now carry on with subsidized health insurance for graduate students, university spokeswoman Erinn Barcomb-Peterson confirmed.

Other Kansas Board of Regents universities can, too.

“Since the Department’s ruling was the only reason we were working toward another solution, there is now no reason to stop offering the subsidies currently in place,” Regents spokeswoman Breeze Richardson said. “We are extremely pleased about this latest decision and hope that the federal agencies involved will make it a permanent one.”

Initial word of losing their subsidized insurance did not go over well with KU graduate students.

A KU Student Senate resolution urged federal lawmakers to push for a different interpretation and urged KU administration to offer comparable financial assistance to graduate students.

Graduate Senator Brittney Oleniacz said KU graduate students rely on the university insurance plan and wouldn’t be able to afford alternatives such as those offered on the Affordable Care Act Marketplace.

“As a GTA (graduate teaching assistant) and GRA (graduate research assistant) myself, I can say that we are overworked. Getting sick is not an option when you have nearly 100 students and have to cater to the needs of faculty, all the while taking courses and conducting research,” she said. “The Affordable Care is NOT affordable when on a student salary.”

More than 6,100 graduate students are enrolled at KU’s Lawrence and Edwards campuses.

About 1,550 of those students are eligible for health insurance subsidies (those who work an average of 20 hours per week) and 1,048 were enrolled, according to a May 2016 count by KU Human Resources. KU pays $435 per semester and students pay $145 per semester toward premiums.

According to an American Council on Education statement, the earlier interpretation was based on an IRS notice intended to prevent employers from eluding the Affordable Care Act’s employer mandate by giving money to employees. The ACA said the guidance incorrectly concluded that the subsidized student health insurance coverage was a kind of impermissible “premium reduction arrangement” as part of an employer payment plan.