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No Insurance? No Classes
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A recent board of education vote says next year students who can’t pay health insurance will be asked to withdraw from college. The policy has been a Boise State University requirement thus far and will now apply to all other Idaho colleges as well.
The second draft of the mandatory health insurance mandate as approved by the Idaho State Board of Education is on the board’s agenda for this week’s Idaho Falls meeting.
Student Affairs Vice President Peg Blake anticipates they will approve the item as written.
The draft says every full-fee paying student attending classes needs to be covered by some kind of health insurance.
Students may buy health insurance offered through the institution, or may present evidence of health insurance coverage that is at least the substantial equivalent of the health insurance coverage offered through the school. Students without health insurance coverage will be ineligible to enroll at any Idaho college.
Blake says the insurance provides very good coverage at a reasonable rate.
“This year, over 4,500 students have enrolled in the Boise State student health insurance plan,” said Blake.
The students had the option of waiving student health insurance this year.
The draft also says students who do give evidence of health insurance coverage other than the university plan must submit the following information to the school: name of health insurance carrier, policy number, location of an employer, insurance company or agent who can verify coverage.
Blake says students are billed each semester for the student health insurance policy.
According to the new policy, all Idaho students without health insurance of any kind will not be allowed to attend classes.
If the policy is approved, BSU will begin checking student information even more to ensure each and every student has adequate health insurance.
The school will now seriously pursue finding out whether students are insured elsewhere, giving appropriate students the option to waive the student health insurance.
An ASBSU resolution objecting to removing uninsured students from classes sponsored by Health Science Senator China Veldhouse, passed unanimously in the senate earlier this year.
Blake, however, reasons that the health insurance level required by the board’s proposed policy is a minimal level of insurance.
Blake said the student health insurance is an excellent plan and is logical as well.
“Philosophically, I am in agreement with the notion that all persons should be covered by some sort of medical insurance. None of us knows when we may need medical care, and it can be prohibitively expensive without adequate insurance coverage,” she said.
Veldhouse identified the importance of health insurance as well.
“Health insurance is valuable because, though we think we are invincible at this age, we are not. If something happens and a student without insurance gets hurt, the bill is far more expensive than it would have been with insurance,” said Veldhouse.
However, student health insurance is more expensive than ever and currently rising. This year’s cost was $216 Next semester’s cost will be $237with an added $6 fee for health center operations.
Collegiate Risk Management, the current insurance carrier, generated these figures.
Veldhouse says the insurance business itself could be a possible reason for next year’s price increase.
“Insurance is a business. They do whatever it takes to make money. They’ll raise rates, reimburse hospitals less, or deny claims,” she said.
She said the added health center fee is acceptable because the it needs the extra money for operations, but the larger health insurance increase is hard on students; most college students must waive health insurance in order to afford books.
“The adults on (the) boards sometimes forget that a lot of us make less than $8 an hour and are paying for our own school,” she said.
Mary Margaret Rice