ASUSU considering mandatory insurance

No decisions have been made yet, but due to financially declining insurance programs at universities throughout the state, members of the ASUSU Executive Council discussed Tuesday the possibility of mandating insurance for all enrolled Utah State University students.

“This is a major issue for students,” President Quinn Millet said. “There is a problem across the state.”

Currently, insurance premiums at most universities in Utah are steadily rising. On average, for every dollar that goes into insurance at a university, $1.06 is goes out by the insurance company, Millet said.

This is causing higher premiums and deterring both students and insurance companies from using universities as a resource.

In order to combat this problem, all the universities in the state that are members of the Utah Student Association hope to present at the next legislative session the idea of mandated insurance as an entire Utah higher education entity.

“One reason we wanted to do this as a state body is it would make premiums go way down,” Millet said.

The university currently goes through a company called First Student. Through this program, student insurance is optional and costs about $2,100 annually. If insurance does become mandatory, students could eventually be paying $300 per semester, said Noell Hansen, USU insurance coordinator.

“The likelihood is if we don’t see some kind of drastic change, [First Student] will not renew their contract with us,” Hansen said.

A student survey will be distributed to every university in Utah by the end of November to receive input on the possible change, Millet said.

Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. is also in support of this legislation and would like to see some action taken possibly by the 2006-07 academic school year, Hansen said.

If the change was implemented at USU, a fee would automatically added to the cost of tuition when a student registers. However, a student can waive the fee if he or she provides proof of other insurance that meets the university’s same requirements, Hansen said.

The problem with insurance premiums began at USU during the 1998-99 academic school year when the university contracted with an insurance company for the next two years. During the first year of the contract, the university had claims that averaged well above the million-dollar range, Hansen said.

Because of that, after the contract range ran eout, insurance premiums tripled and that trend has continued today, Hansen said.

-mmackay@cc.usu.edu