The Struggle With Student Health Insurance

Health Insurance Groups Blog

The problem our group will be addressing is if universities are helpful in providing students with accessible healthcare. Our main focus will be on the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). Our rationale comes from how health insurance coverage should be a major part of what universities provide for students, especially when students live on campus or spend hours here if they commute from home. UMBC student health insurance comes in two main versions:

1. Students who are enrolled in a student health plan, normally get health coverage. They do this by enrolling in the Health Insurance Marketplace (Health care coverage options for college students).
2. Different varieties of health plans with certain stipulations:
   1. Dependents under 26; essentially still relying on parents
   2. Dependents for people over 26; applies for coverage with parents or stays on their own plan
   3. Lastly, no one claims you as a dependent; may be living away from parents

So, what needs to change in order for students to get the health insurance they need? Colleges/universities should help college students with understanding health insurance plans more. Essentially proper transition preparation is desperately needed (Rea et al.). It is the students who live away from home need the transition support the most.

The goal of our group is to make health insurance more accessible to UMBC students, requiring us to answer certain research questions. A few questions we came up with were: We need to research how student health insurance is structured and how much? Who is required and not required to have school insurance? Are the multiple options of insurance available?

There are many setbacks and stipulations that students experience when looking for the right health insurance program. According to Rea, Kelly, the vast majority of the students around the US have reported that “someone” taught them to manage their own health care needs. Lack of information about health care options among students, or lack of details about managing mental health (managing stress, anxiety, and panic attacks).. Since students are given the sole responsibility of acquiring their health insurance plans they are lacking the variety of different options related to insurance plans. This lack of information creates further decrease in the students mental health.

This does not only apply to in-country students but international students as well. International students are required by law to carry health insurance. There are no exceptions to this rule. Both students in-state and out of state are encouraged to enroll in student health insurance at UMBC. All UMBC F-1 visa students will be automatically enrolled in UMBC’s student health plan, and will be automatically billed accordingly. In order to expand health insurance resources UMBC should have other methods of awareness in comforting students on choosing the best health insurance plan. Methods such as workshops about details of healthcare insurance among UMBC students. Finding unique ways encourage students to take part in workshops or clubs that relate to healthcare insurance. Lastly, provide flyers or surveys for all students. 

Having a student health insurance plan has its advantages and disadvantages. The advantages of student health insurance are: A) Having access to local provider networks in the area. B) Having convenient access to the Retriever Integrated Health at UMBC. C) Lastly, students’ financial aid packages may be able to cover the costs for student health insurance. However, the disadvantages of student health insurance are that for non-emergency care outside of a certain radius around UMBC, a referral from a student health facility may be necessary if the student is outside 56 miles of UMBC.

The Health insurance group achieved their goal by creating a poster/infographic that summarized the important aspects of student health insurance and put them around campus. We want to provide more information that relates to healthcare insurance. Many students might not know their rights when it comes to receiving their health insurance so we created this infographic for student guidance. 

In conclusion, we started the project with a very big goal in mind which was to expand the coverage of student health insurance. After some research, we quickly realized that doing that was beyond our capabilities so we scaled down. With our poster we hope to have made more students more aware of their options and more involved with student health care at UMBC.