“I’ve definitely had to fight with health insurance companies,” Hoffman said. “I was really worried that I was going to be 22 or 23 (years old) and not have a job or not have insurance.”

The passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act quelled some of her fears about being denied coverage for a pre-existing condition.

According to a recent report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Health Interview Survey, or NHIS, the number of young Americans without health insurance is on the decline.

Matthew Broaddus, the report’s main author, determined the increase in coverage among young people likely is the result of a provision of the Affordable Care Act that allows young people to stay on their parents’ insurance plans until age 26.

In 2011, the percentage of people aged 19-25 without health insurance was 27.9 percent, a drop from the previous year, when 33.9 percent of the same age group were not covered.

Kathleen Braunlich, marketing manager for Olin Health Center, said she has noticed the uninsured student is a minority now, although it is too soon to tell how much of an impact the Affordable Care Act has on students.

“What we’ve found over the last few years is that a large majority of students have some sort of insurance,” Braunlich said. “We haven’t seen many big changes (yet), but it makes sense.”

Before the Affordable Care Act took effect, most students were dropped from their parents’ plans by age 21 or 22, Braunlich said.

But now Braunlich said she is seeing a higher number of students who have a form of health insurance, especially among graduate students or students aged 23-26, who now can stay on their parents’ insurance plans.

“For me, there was always a fear that I was going to go without (insurance), and now I won’t,” Hoffman said.

The Affordable Care Act draws parallels with a former plan by MSU administrators to require students to have some form of health insurance, whether through their parents or a universitywide plan.

But MSU was the only public university in Michigan to require a student health care policy, which threatened its eligibility for earning additional state funds under a budget stipulation prohibiting universities from mandating health insurance plans.

MSU administrators dropped the mandate earlier this summer but still require students to fill out a form stating if they have health insurance. If students are without insurance, they will be encouraged to purchase MSU’s student insurance.

But it still is too early in the year for finalized numbers on how many students have remained on their parents’ health insurance compared to MSU’s Aetna Student Health insurance plan.

Students are continuing to enroll in MSU’s insurance through the end of the month, and a final count likely will not be available until November, said Bethany Balks, communications manager for MSU Human Resources.