September 18, 2000
Fact sheet: Health insurance for undergrads
The University of California is believed to be the first major multi-campus educational system to enact a mandatory health care policy for its undergraduates. The UC Regents at its September 2000 meeting authorized President Richard C. Atkinson to establish mandatory health insurance as a nonacademic condition of enrollment for undergraduates. The new policy is effective with the fall term 2001.
Background and more information on the new policy:
- The action is a response to the growing concern about the estimated 40 percent
of UC undergraduates without adequate health insurance and the alarming medical-related
student drop-out rates.
- An estimated 25 percent of cases where students leave school are for medical
reasons, with UC losing about nine percent of the 20,500 incoming freshmen during
each of their first two years.
- Students already covered by adequate health insurance can waive the requirement.
- Pooling larger numbers of students is expected to provide leverage for improved
benefits at lower costs to students than would be expected with private coverage.
Cost for health insurance will be factored into grants, loans, and work-study programs
offered to students who receive financial aid.
- Twenty years ago, student registration fees covered all on-campus health care
for UC students. Reductions in registration fee allocations to health and counseling
services resulted in campus-based services being scaled back and increased user out-of-pocket
fees. At the same time families have seen more limited family coverage and HMOs have
not met coverage when sons or daughters have traveled outside coverage areas to attend
college.
- Since 1986 there has been mandatory major medical health insurance for graduate
and international students on all nine existing campuses and mandatory health insurance
required of UC Berkeley undergraduate students. In fall 1998, UCSC instituted a group
insurance program for undergraduate students as a result of a student vote the previous
year (see Currents
article).
- Depending on the campus, between 55 percent and 90 percent of all students use
their student health services at least once while they attend the university. Upper
respiratory tract infections, musculoskeletal injuries, routine or non-routine gynecological
care, and dermatologic conditions are common.
- Campus health services report that they also--along with care for traditional students--are seeing increasingly diverse students with health care needs that differ from earlier populations. Students now routinely include increased numbers of international students, first generation immigrants, single parents, ethnic minorities, and physically challenged and older students with special needs.
