Uninsured students taking on higher risk, doctor says
Uninsured students are 25 percent more likely to die overall, Dr. Jim Davis, director of the Student Health and Wellness Center, said Thursday while discussing positives and negatives of mandatory student health insurance.
Davis said uninsured students are three to five times more likely to delay seeking needed medical services and four times more likely to experience avoidable hospitalization due to these delays.
“You (students) are at risk for all kinds of things happening to you,” he said. “I don’t think it takes a meteor to hit us to make us have health risks.”
Currently, USU has elective health insurance, meaning insurance is not required to register for classes.
However, some students and faculty are working to make health insurance at USU mandatory.
When students don’t have insurance, Davis said, it leads to problems such as foregoing medical care or large medical bills. These bills can interrupt education or can be left unpaid, causing even more problems for the student.
“We’re interested in keeping you in school,” Davis said.
Other than retention, Davis said USU’s interests in mandatory healthcare include reduced liability, community relation, quality care, public health and a genuine care for students’ welfare.
When uninsured students go to the Wellness Center and can’t afford simple tests, he said, “It’s like I’m practicing in a third-world country.”
Benefits for students with health insurance are minimized financial risk, established insurability, access to medical care and specialists, and privacy from parents, Davis said.
However, he said students don’t choose to get insured because plans are expensive, they don’t think it’s necessary because they are healthy and they thought they were insured under their parents.
Students may also think they can use safety nets such as charity care from hospitals, Medicaid, paying over time or going without care, he said.
But Davis said they are called safety nets for a reason: “There are holes in all of these safety nets.”
He said students may still be left with huge bills if they use the safety nets, and Medicaid is not available for single and married students unless they have children.
The USU health plan, Davis said, is more expensive, has a $1,000 limit on medications, and doesn’t have very broad day-to-day coverage. However, it has no deductible, no medical underwriting, and it covers maternity without a huge co-pay.
“My interest is to provide students with information to make a rational decision,” Davis said.
The Associated Students of USU will be trying to pass legislation tomorrow to require all students to have health insurance, said Maure Smith, the Graduate Student Senate president.
Smith said if the ASUSU executive council passes the legislation, it will move on to the Staters Council, where ASUSU will meet with central administration of USU. The Staters Council will ultimately be the body that implements the new legislation.
“In my opinion, (implementing mandatory student health insurance) won’t happen soon enough,” she said.
Smith said requiring health insurance for students will have to be executed across the state in order to make it work, since some students would only go to a school without it if they had the choice.
She said if the issue passes with the Staters Council, it will likely move on to the Board of Regents, but it will take time until USU students are required to have health insurance.
-rebrad@cc.usu.edu