There is a growing chance that every U student will be required to have health insurance within the next couple of years.
If it happens, it will be the U’s third attempt in about 15 years to mandate student coverage8212;but the first time the state’s flagship university won’t be trying to do it alone.
Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. said he would like to include a health insurance coverage requirement at all Utah colleges and universities as part of an overhaul of the state’s health care system. Huntsman’s health care policy adviser told The Salt Lake Tribune that a bill could be before the Utah State Legislature as early as this spring.
Associate Vice President for Student Development Kari Ellingson, who oversees student health services at the U, said it’s possible some sort of legislation will be passed during the 2009 legislative session, but whatever it is that emerges won’t be implemented for at least a year or two.
She said the likely result will be a requirement in which students either show proof of coverage during registration or buy into a low-cost plan offered by the state. She said a statewide group plan for students would cost about $50 per month.
Ellingson, who is a member of a fact-finding committee created by the governor’s office, said she supports a requirement that students have some form of health insurance.
“I think we have a population that is, for the most part, healthy,” she said. “But an unexpected illness, a catastrophic injury, even a broken leg can potentially bankrupt a student at a very important time of their life.”
The U offers a voluntary health care plan to students that costs about $1,300 per school year. The plan includes $10 co-payments for office visits and comes with a $250 deductible. The plan doesn’t include prescription drug coverage.
Ellingson said about 15 percent of the students enrolled at the U are not covered by any plan. She said she thinks students would be supportive of a coverage mandate if it was affordable.
“I think most times students would rather be covered but simply can’t afford it,” Ellingson said.
In the past, student government leaders have led the push for mandatory health insurance at the U.
Associated Students of the University of Utah President Patrick Reimherr said he is undecided about whether or not a mandate is the best way to get all students covered. He said he would like to see better utilization of existing campus health services.
“It’s complicated,” he said. “We want students covered, but I’ve had students tell me before that if there was a mandate to buy insurance they would have to drop out.”
Reimherr said he liked the idea of the $50 per month premium mentioned by Ellingson, but pointed out that about 40 percent of students are married and about 20 percent have children.
“That sounds like a good policy, but there are some questions about how it would work for those students,” he said.
The U first attempted to implement some form of health coverage requirement in 1993. Student Health Insurance Program Manager Kerry Hill said the plan mandated coverage in phases8212;beginning with graduate students in the first year and working down to incoming freshman by the third year. By 1996, however, the school was forced to abandon the policy under pressure from students.
“We actually had a couple of schools around the area campaigning for admissions, telling U students that if they switched schools they wouldn’t (be) required to have health insurance,” Hill said.
Ellingson said the key to getting student support is to have coverage mandated at all schools statewide, which wasn’t the case in 1993. As a result, students came to think of the requirement as punitive rather than beneficial, she said.
Hill said three years ago ASUU spearheaded a second attempt to require student coverage. That effort resulted in the implementation of a soft waiver requirement that remains in place today.
All students registering for classes are now asked whether or not they have health insurance. If they don’t, they are directed to information about the school’s plan but not required to do anything.
Reimherr characterized the effort two years ago as a campaign “designed to promote a conversation on campus about health insurance.”
He said it was beneficial to ASUU as a research campaign and as a forum to get feedback from students8212;both of which increase the likelihood that a third attempt at mandated coverage will succeed.