Recently, more public universities have chosen to enact a mandate on their students. It is not a requirement that students keep their grade point averages above a certain level, or a code of honor that forbids cheating. Rather, they are forcing all of their attendees to have health insurance plans! Health insurance and studying don’t normally seem like related topics. However, many university officials have pointed to scientific studies, which show that students in good health are better able to concentrate on their courses. As a result, they earn higher grades than those in bad health. While having health coverage doesn’t necessarily improve a person’s health in and of itself, it allows one to use affordable preventative care services that catch illnesses before they worsen. If a student’s condition is not cared for properly, it can become serious enough to make them withdraw out of school altogether.
The majority of college students are covered through the health insurance plans of their parents. These plans are usually employer-sponsored, and the recession has seen an increasing number of people laid off from their jobs. COBRA family health insurance plans can cost over ,000 in premiums each month, so many families are forced to drop their insurance. College-age children lose their insurance, as well, when that is the case. A parent’s coverage of a university student as a dependent also expires when a full-time student reaches their 24th or 25th birthday; this affects many individuals who have chosen to return to school or switched majors. Students who receive health insurance through jobs of their own are also susceptible to either layoffs or cutbacks in hours that make them ineligible for employer-sponsored plans.
Despite most students already having health insurance, slightly over a quarter of college students are estimated to be uninsured. There are several reasons for this; many young adults believe they are invincible and in generally good health, so they believe health insurance is unnecessary. Also, the cost of student health insurance is daunting–even to those who recognize the need for insurance. Most colleges offer voluntary student health insurance plans, but relatively few individuals partake in them. In general, a large portion of this demographic doesn’t realize how important health insurance plans are until they are in a serious accident or diagnosed with a major illness. This is part of the reason health insurance mandates have been enacted in over a third of public four-year colleges, with 22 other state systems looking towards doing so.
There are several advantages to college students having health insurance. Most importantly, it will increase the physical and mental safety of students on campus. In addition, health insurance plans assist with significant medical expenses that would otherwise come out of the student’s own pocket. Since most college students are not flush with cash, many will either skip essential treatments or be saddled with thousands of dollars in medical debt for years. Medical debt is the #1 cause of bankruptcy, and having student loans on top of that doesn’t help. Quality health care allows students to finish a degree in a reasonable period of time, without as many health-related distractions; this helps save money on tuition. Other universities are also concerned with the burden uninsured students put on local hospitals surrounding the campus.
On the other hand, there are significant drawbacks to mandating health insurance plans among students. The most prominent concern is that health insurance will force students to pay yet another fee, which many can ill afford as tuition rates continue to rise. Higher education will be further out of reach for some college students. Although health insurance plans have long been mandatory in many private universities, most public universities tend to have a less affluent student body that will feel the brunt of such mandates. To counteract this problem, state universities are pointing to the fact that they will be able to use the sheer volume of enrolled students to buy lower-priced health insurance plans from one company. For example, the University of North Carolina claims that they are able to provide health insurance that used to cost over ,100 in premiums per year (at least 15% of annual tuition in some states) for just 0.
Massachusetts, known to be a leader in healthcare reform among states, has required all students–with either full- or part-time status–to have health insurance plans since 1989. In most cases, the mandates have come from the universities themselves. Several prominent university systems, including those in California, Montana, and Minnesota, also have the mandate. Other states, like Florida, are using a pilot program in one state university to test the concept. California is set to expand the health insurance mandate to graduate students next year. Most current mandates apply solely to undergraduates, and some only apply to incoming freshmen and transfer students; however, graduate study often entails long work weeks of research and teaching lower-level courses, leaving no time to take a full-time position. In exchange, graduate students receive a small stipend but no health benefits, which leaves them in situations similar to uninsured undergraduates.
(Image: anne.oeldorfhirsch under CC 2.0)
