The whole idea behind insurance is a bit convoluted: You shouldn’t have to suffer financial ruin if you’re sick or hurt; therefore, you should have insurance to help lessen the costs and keep you from bankruptcy when you’re forced out of work or into a hospital. In order to get this insurance, however, you’ll need to pay exorbitant amounts of money or rely on your employers or parents (or your parents’ employers).
The whole idea behind insurance is a bit convoluted: You shouldn’t have to suffer financial ruin if you’re sick or hurt; therefore, you should have insurance to help lessen the costs and keep you from bankruptcy when you’re forced out of work or into a hospital. In order to get this insurance, however, you’ll need to pay exorbitant amounts of money or rely on your employers or parents (or your parents’ employers).
As a result, many people settle for the most basic insurance they can get. Portland State has made this easy over the past few years, offering students a basic health insurance option. It covered the bare minimum: partial payment of the costs for office visits, hospitalizations, surgery, tests, etc. Essentially, the insurance PSU offered was a buffer; it paid part of the bill so that students had a better chance at affording healthcare.
Now, PSU has changed its health plan. Students get more comprehensive coverage, albeit for a higher price. And despite student complaints about the cost, the new health plan is a good thing.
The jump in price per term—$330—is not precisely small. For a full year’s coverage, students will be expected to pay an additional $990, a total of $2,037 per year. With the ever-increasing cost of tuition (9 percent this year alone), it seems unrealistic that a student could afford this extra cost.
But when you consider it, $2,037 per year for very comprehensive insurance is actually a good deal. There are certainly cheaper options available—individuals age 18 to 24 can generally find a basic insurance plan for about $1,200 per year. However, these plans are often very limited, restricting medical payments to a maximum of about $10,000 per year.
The PSU plan, although more expensive, allows medical payments by insurance of up to $100,000 per year. It also covers prescription medications, which about 50 percent of women and 40 percent of men in the United States use regularly. This includes birth control, a big concern for college students in particular.
Another major complaint students have is that it has been difficult to waive the health insurance coverage. Much of this is because students can only apply to waive the insurance plan if they have a comparable plan already, such as one offered by their work or through their parents. Students who meet this requirement can waive out with a simple application now.
For students who don’t have comparable insurance, however, it’s really in their best interest to stay on the PSU health plan anyway. As such, being unable to waive off is not a bad thing. Without insurance, about 80 percent of PSU students would have to drop out of school if they were faced with a medical crisis.
Also on the plus side is the fact that the insurance coverage doesn’t end with the school year. If students pay the spring term fee, they retain insurance coverage throughout the summer, even if they’re no longer registered as a student for the summer term. For students busy trying to find a job or plan out their next year as an independent, this is a very positive thing.
Possibly the biggest concern for most students is, of course, the fact that there are no other options available through PSU for insurance. Whereas many universities offer students the option to choose between comprehensive insurance, basic insurance or accident insurance, PSU offers only the comprehensive option.
This does seem to be the biggest problem with the plan itself. As thorough and well thought out as this plan is, it does not take into account that different students have different needs and different financial constraints. Forcing all students to enroll in a healthcare plan that may not align with their needs is irresponsible and unconscionable to some.
There are no plans at this time to make other options available to students, so unless people facing this issue are prepared to make other arrangements themselves, it seems unlikely that this will be resolved. With luck (and possibly student complaints), the school will offer more options next year.
The major issue here, overall, is whether health insurance should be necessary to attend college at all. As someone who hopes to work as a medical professional in the future, I am, of course, inclined to believe so. However, as is the case with life outside college, I believe one should have a choice in what kind of insurance to use.
Overall, the comprehensive student health plan will be a good option for most students. For those already insured, the waiving process (six yes/no questions) is simple enough, and for those seeking other options, they have some time to find outside sources for their own insurance.
And should disaster strike, hey—at least you won’t have to choose between school and medical bills.
You stated that “Without insurance, about 80 percent of PSU students would have to drop out of school if they were faced with a medical crisis.” There is a serious flaw in this argument. While I don’t attend PSU I can assure you that having insurance has nothing to do with if one drops out or not (when dealing with a medical crisis). I withdrew from my university due to a chronic illness; insurance had nothing to do with it. Insurance does not determine if one will have to discontinue school for the time being, how sick one is does. Hell, I had insurance and my parents were paying for my medical treatments, office visits, and prescriptions.