UNCC Health Insurance Mandate

College making moves to require that students have health coverage



MIKE STOBBE



Staff Writer





UNC Charlotte is considering a requirement that all its students have health insurance.



The mandate would take effect this fall. Students would have to prove they are insured under their parents or have coverage independently. If they have neither, they could buy coverage through a UNCC-sponsored plan.



If they don't have coverage, they wouldn't be allowed to attend, said Chuck Lynch, vice chancellor for student affairs at the 20,000-student university.



About 20 percent of the school's students -- or roughly 4,000 -- have no insurance, Lynch said. University officials are concerned that illness or injury could leave students with crippling medical bills that might force them to drop out of school, he said.



They also are concerned that the risk is becoming more widespread, as fewer and fewer students are able to get coverage through their parents' employers, Lynch added.



The mandate is contingent on UNCC's negotiations for a new insurance package. UNCC expects to have a contract finalized this week, he said.



Such mandates are growing more common in higher education. More than 90 percent of private universities require health insurance as a condition of enrollment, and about 25 percent of four-year public universities do, said Stephen Beckley, a Colorado-based health care management consultant.



UNCC wouldn't be the first institution in the 16-campus University of North Carolina system to have a mandate.



Five of the schools already require insurance of all undergraduate students -- UNC Pembroke, Fayetteville State University, Elizabeth City State University, N.C. Central University in Durham and the N.C. School of the Arts in Winston-Salem.



But health insurance at those universities is very limited. At UNC Pembroke, for example, the coverage -- provided by the MEGA Life and Health Insurance Co. -- costs students $380 a year but will cover no more than $6,000 in medical bills.



UNCC currently offers a voluntary coverage through a Florence, S.C., broker, Pearce & Pearce Inc. The premium is $1,068 a year, with a $500 deductible. It covers up to $50,000 per sickness or injury.



Only a few hundred UNCC students have that coverage.



With the new contract, UNCC hopes to cut the premium at least by half, but keep the $50,000 coverage, Lynch said.



But a $50,000 coverage is not much in the world of health care, noted Bob Wirag, director of student health service at UNC Chapel Hill.



"If a student has a serious accident, $50,000 will be eaten up in a heartbeat," Wirag said.



"It baffles me how some campus administrators feel they have a plan they can endorse as adequate that covers less than $50,000," said Wirag. He added that UNC Chapel Hill offers voluntary coverage that costs students $1,451 a year but pays for medical bills up to $250,000.



But UNCC's Lynch said most university students are young and healthy and don't rack up large bills. He said he could think of only one UNCC student with the voluntary coverage who exceeded $50,000 in medical bills.



Officials from 10 UNC system schools have joined UNCC in a consortium seeking a new insurance contract, which the N.C. Department of Insurance is coordinating. But UNCC could sign a contract that doesn't include the other schools, Lynch said.



Students divided on issue



The mandate was an issue in the student government elections held last week."I think health insurance is really important, but it should be a student's choice," said Andrew Besmer, 19, a computer science major who campaigned on the issue for student body president but lost.



It seemed like a popular position. At the UNCC campus last week, several students said they opposed requiring insurance.



"(A mandate) seems like a way to keep poor people out of school, because insurance is expensive," said James Bacon, 21, a junior majoring in African American studies. He has insurance through his parents.



Some older students were more ambivalent.



"I'm on the fence," said Elisabeth Bridgewater, 30, a psychology major who also is a dispatcher at Ace Towing and Recovery.



She's wary of forcing a new cost on students. But she also was concerned about what might have happened to students without insurance. She said her brother, a student at N.C. State University, became ill but delayed getting treatment because he had no coverage or money to pay for it. (He recovered, fortunately.)



"I think everybody needs health insurance," she said.



Nancy Brennan, a 44-year-old mother of two, said she appreciates the importance of health insurance. But she also wants to see details of the insurance package UNCC is considering.



What's the premium going to cost? Will it cover a students' children?



"You've got to read the fine print," she said.



A Growing Trend



20% Of UNCC's students have no insurance, according to Chuck Lynch, vice chancellor for student affairs.



90%+ Of private universities require health insurance as a condition of enrollment, says Stephen Beckley, a health care management consultant.



25% Of four-year public universities require health insurance, Beckley says.