Students in the UNC System will be required to have health insurance before enrolling for classes in the fall of 2010.
Due to rising numbers of people going without health insurance across the nation, all of North Carolina’s public college students, roughly 215,000 people, will be required to have coverage.
The UNC System will offer a plan for the estimated 16 percent of college students who cannot provide their own health insurance. Students who do not opt out of the plan by showing proof of insurance will be billed for the plan automatically.
This will simplify things for the 16 UNC system campuses, which use different health insurance plans with a wide variety of coverage and cost. For instance, maximum basic benefits for different plans range from $5,000 to $250,000.
The plan offered by the UNC system was made to be affordable, accessible, and high-quality. In a move designed to save students money, the system conducted a search of insurance providers to determine which has the best value.
A request for proposals document, developed by UNC System health professionals, was issued in November of 2008 to test whether better rates and coverage could be obtained for all UNC students using the common base student health insurance plan developed in conjunction with the campuses.
Bids were sought under the assumption that all schools would enforce participation with the beliefs that rates would be lower for most students under this alternative. The results of the RFP proved this to be true, with bids for claims in the $549-$679 range.
Under the new plan, students will pay half of the health insurance premium each semester, with coverage continuing through the summer whether or not the student is enrolled in summer school.
If a student graduates in the spring, then coverage will continue until Aug. 1. Coverage will be in effect until Jan. 1 for students who graduate at the end of the fall semester.
There will drawbacks to using the plan provided by the UNC system. While dental needs resulting from an accident or injury are covered under the plan, basic preventative dental coverage is not. However, there are plans to explore preventative dental insurance coverage as a separate policy for voluntary purchase across the UNC system.
Students have mixed opinions on whether or not health insurance should be mandatory.
“I have health insurance, but I do not think that it should be mandatory for everyone else. I think students should get it voluntarily, if possible, because it is necessary in a setting where sicknesses are likely, such as the close living quarters of campus life,” Ian Rogers, a freshman in First Year College, said.
Peter Terrio, a freshman aerospace engineering, said health insurance should be mandatory because students who do not have it and cannot afford treatment can infect the whole population.
The development of a common UNC System student health insurance plan is the foundation step for an ongoing review of campus health centers.
After the RFP is released, the directors of student health centers will collect and discuss information about their centers such as the number of doctors, hours, size of the pharmacy, and which services are offered.
Additionally, the directors will continue to explore fiscal models which provide the highest levels of quality while maintaining affordability.