Legislation that would allow college students to remain covered by their family’s health insurance if they take a medical leave from school was approved Wednesday by a House committee.

The Energy and Commerce Committee approved the bill 40-0, after amending it to clarify that insurers must provide coverage to students who downgrade to part-time status as a result of a serious illness or injury. Students on medical leaves could remain covered for up to 12 months.

The bill (HR 2851) is called Michelle’s Law, after Michelle Morse, a New Hampshire woman who died in 2005 of colon cancer. Paul W. Hodes, D-N.H., sponsored the measure.

Morse was diagnosed with cancer in 2003 while in college but stayed in school full-time — against the advice of her doctors — in order to maintain coverage under her parents’ insurance. She was 22 when she died, six months after she graduated.

Under current law, students older than 18 can be covered under their parents’ insurance policies only as long as they are enrolled in school full-time or if the parents pay higher premiums, which some families cannot afford.

Although the bill is noncontroversial, the markup hit a hiccup after Texas Republican Michael C. Burgess offered an amendment to bar insurers from denying coverage for injuries sustained from legal recreational activities. Burgess said that current law allows plans to deny benefits if an injury results for some high-risk activities such as use of a motorcycle or snowboarding.

While Chairman John D. Dingell, D-Mich., said he believed the law should be changed to prohibit those denials, he ruled the amendment was not germane to the underlying bill.