Students push for required insurance
Students concerned with rising school insurance rates are pushing for Utah State University to require all students to have insurance.
Premiums over the past years have risen, thanks to market trends, an unusual amount of large claims filed at USU and fewer students buying insurance.
Noell Hansen, insurance specialist at the Student Health and Wellness Center, said enrollment is down to 400-500 students, since it used to be 1,700-1,800. Most students who buy premiums are married and buy the policies for the maternity coverage, which is covered as normal illness.
As the number of students buying premiums goes down, the amount of money available to give when a claim is filed goes down as well. To accommodate, the insurance company raises the price of the premiums, which, in turn, discourages more students from buying. The more people who pitch into the money pot, the less each has to pay.
USU’s choices about what companies to work with are limited because there is no guarantee there will be enough students to cover the expenses. One company working with the school lost $1.09 per dollar taken in.
“Many companies don’t want to get in with USU because we don’t have a mandatory insurance policy,” said Hansen. She called the process a “death spiral.”
“Unless changes are made, students won’t be able to afford the insurance, there will be no people in the pool and insurance companies won’t do business with the school,” she said.
Hansen said she has been seeing trends of more “high-risk” users, such as married couples. Applicants for student insurance cannot be screened to determine risk, which raises the price of premiums.
Price isn’t the only reason students are not using insurance through the school, said Dr. Jim Davis, director and physician at the Student Health Center. Besides being able to find a cheaper plan, students complain the policy isn’t comprehensive enough. However, Davis said that the combination of the premiums and the health center is comprehensive enough to cover students. Students also worry that the plan doesn’t include enough preventative care, such as check-ups and evaluations.
The Student Health Advisory Committee, part of ASUSU, voted last year to change the school’s policy. In exchange for a better policy, the price has increased. Co-pays on the new plan are lower: $25 for a doctor’s visit, a difference of $5, and $50 for outpatients, a difference of $25. Also, the old prescription plan allowed for $500 worth of prescription drugs. The new policy allows for twice that much.
Insurance plans for a single student cost between $2,136 and $2,425 a year. For a student and spouse, it costs between $7,454 and $8,509, and for a family, the price can be up to $13,105 annually.
One proposed solution for the high prices is to require all students attending USU to have insurance, whether it is through the school, parents or employment benefits.
“Our goal is to make things better for the students,” Josh Kerkmann, one of the students hoping for the new campus policy, said. “We don’t want to make it worse.”
Kerkmann and Davis said they worried the idea of a mandatory insurance policy might upset some students. “The school doesn’t require students to have housing, a food plan or money to buy books,” Davis said. “Why should it force them to have insurance?”
The reasons are many, he said. More students buying insurance means lower premiums. But the requirement would not be meant to benefit only those who are already shelling out the money.
Having insurance covers students in case of accidents or illness, so it insures the ability of students to continue classes despite medical problems. It is a “mechanism of retention,” Davis said.
“Financial devastation makes it so people have to drop out. That scares me,” Hansen said.
A third reason is a matter of public health. Many students without insurance may simply suffer through illness without seeking medical attention. This means people sharing crowded classrooms may be spreading germs and letting a cold become a campus-wide epidemic. If something comes up, having insurance makes students more likely to see a doctor.
Another reason is the matter of liability. Accidents happen, and the best way to make sure things are taken care of is to be insured, not hope the university will pick up the expenses, Davis said.
“On one side, students need insurance,” said Kerkmann. “On the other side, students are students: we’re poor.”
Kerkmann said other campuses are having the same problem. He hopes collaboration between Utah schools would make lower rates available to students.
“If we have 100,000 students, we can get great rates from the insurance companies,” he said.
-ella@cc.usu.edu