Student Health Insurance: An Introduction

In April of 2006, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts enacted health care reform that required nearly all residents of Massachusetts to have health insurance coverage. While some have considered Massachusett’s decision a health reform milestone, both legislators and state agencies knew that simply insuring its residents was not sufficient to enact total reform, or to bring about better health. The state took measures to guarantee that the insurance offered and subsidized to its residents was adequate in terms of services covered., thus creating the Minimum Creditable Coverage (MCC) standards, which include comprehensive coverage, including prescription drugs, while requiring out-of-pocket spending limits and prohibiting infamous caps on minimums. Yet, while the state took many steps to not only insure all of its citizens, but require them to have comprehensive coverage, the Commonwealth neglected a large segment of its populations: its students.

Since 1988, both undergraduate and graduate students have been governed under the Qualifying Student health Insurance Program (QSHIP). Yet, for still-unexplained reasons, students have been left out of Massachusetts' new health care reform. Despite the fact that nearly every plan in the Commonwealth was forced to meet MCC standards, QSHIP was not held accountable to these standards. This has left students (approximately 77,000 undergraduates in 2008) on student health insurance severely underinsured. Some student health insurance plans have exclusions of both prescription drugs and preventative care, outpatient caps as low as $1,500 and annual caps as low as $50,000 (See Community College Plans). These plans have forced students to either take on medical bills they cannot pay, or simply avoid care to ensure financial viability. In addition, some students with medical debt are eligible for Massachusetts Free Care. This results in the Massachusetts government subsidizing poor health plans by shuttling their members into state-funded care when the original health insurance plans prove insufficient.

While Massachusetts health care reform offers subsidized plans to nearly all residents, students are excluded from these options simply by dint of being students (even if these students pay taxes and are Massachusetts residents). Therefore, if a student needs to have comprehensive coverage, the only options are to either purchase an extremely expensive private plan (which may be impossible if the student is already paying for his/her tuition), or to drop out of school, thereby qualifying for state subsidized plans. The current system forces students to choose between their health and their education, and Massachusetts health care reform has not yet done anything to ease this dilemma.

- Aaron Marden
Founder of SHOC