School health insurances consider student budget

College students in New York—already burdened by tuition and high costs of living—who are not covered by a family plan face the unwanted expense of health insurance.

With that in mind, most city universities aim to provide affordable student insurance policies.

But the options offered by Columbia, Barnard, New York University, Fordham, and the City College of New York differ in certain crucial respects.

Columbia and Barnard use Aetna as their student health insurance provider; Barnard switched just this year from UnitedHealthcare. Both schools require all full-time students to be insured. Students are automatically enrolled in the “basic” school insurance plan, and those who do not have outside insurance are encouraged to buy the “comprehensive” plan.

The annual premium for the basic Columbia plan is $1,638, and for the comprehensive, $2,344. Columbia students may opt out of the plan, though the University has defined six criteria that any full-time student should have in an insurance policy, such as provision for services overseas and adequate drug and alcohol treatment, according to Samuel Seward, assistant vice president of Columbia Health Services.

Columbia premiums increased by nine percent this year, though Barnard’s remained stable. Noting the nationwide trend in health insurance prices, Seward said, “Student health insurance plans are not immune to those costs. Hospital-based costs are going up, medication costs are going up, specialized care costs are going up. All the sort of major attributes of what ultimately is in a health care package for an individual, the costs are going up.”

But according to Brenda Slade, director of Barnard Health Services, Barnard’s premiums have barely increased over the past 12 years.

“Certainly the industry is in a state of flux, but certainly our goal always is to keep it a very low increase or none at all,” Slade said.

In terms of actual coverage levels, Columbia students are insured for $1 million per condition. Seward said that in his seven years at the school, he has never seen a student exceed this limit.

In determining what benefits to include in the plan, Seward added, “We always try to weigh how many students will benefit from this plan change and what will the cost of all students be as a result.”

The plan was recently changed to cover certain vaccines students had requested, but “it’s always tied to cost,” Seward said. “There’s no such thing as a free lunch when it comes to insurance.”

Across Broadway, all Barnard students are automatically enrolled in Aetna’s basic plan, which is mandatory and covers a maximum of $5,000 per illness or accident.

For students who want fuller coverage, Barnard offers an optional supplemental plan, which covers up to $50,000 per illness or accident and includes partial coverage for outpatient or specialist procedures, such as up to four visits to a physical therapist.

The physical therapy coverage is new—in the past it was included only under the comprehensive plan, but is now included in the basic plan as well. And while elective procedures are not covered, Aetna offers a discount program, according to Elliot Wasserman, department manager of Barnard Health Services.

Both Slade and Seward cautioned against comparing Columbia’s and Barnard’s plans, or comparing either to those at other city schools.

“It’s a very different demographic with different insurance needs,” Slade said of Columbia, adding that Barnard is more comparable to the other “Seven Sisters” schools, and that universities like Columbia and NYU should not be used as benchmarks.

According to NYU’s student health Web site, all students enrolled in degree programs are required to have health insurance, which the school offers through Consolidated Health Plans. The annual premium for the basic plan is $1,261, and for the comprehensive plan, $1,963.

“NYU is one of the better plans,” said Mary Jo Blomberg, an account manager at CHP. “It’s probably the best coverage offered at a school plan.”

Recent changes to benefits included in NYU’s basic plan are 100 percent coverage of the flu vaccine and an increase in the annual pharmaceutical maximum.

Fordham University, meanwhile, does not require students to purchase health insurance, though all students are automatically enrolled in accident insurance with a maximum of $2,500 per accident.

“Experts say that somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 percent of college students are uninsured or underinsured nationally,” said Greg Pappas, assistant vice president for Student Affairs at Fordham. “We’re not as high as the national average, but a significant number of our students are uninsured or underinsured.”

After conducting an extensive study last year of the effects of requiring all students to either show proof of insurance or to procure Fordham’s plan through USI Affinity—a mandate similar to Columbia’s and Barnard’s—the school opted not to have a mandatory program because it would have been financially prohibitive to require Fordham students to pay the substantial annual premium, Pappas said.

But Fordham does offer student insurance plans at two different levels, with the basic costing $1,620 and the comprehensive $1,886 per year.

“We are always modifying and improving our program to see where we can improve on the benefits … so the premium isn’t too high,” Pappas said.

He estimated that between six and seven percent of the university’s students purchase the school’s optional insurance plan. Most of that number are graduate students off their parents’ plans; others are covered by family insurance or opt for catastrophic insurance only.

City College, as part of CUNY, offers student insurance through Group Health Insurance, a subsidiary of EmblemHealth. While the plan is not mandatory, “We try [for] students to get insured one way or another,” Mariel Cruz, a college assistant at CCNY, said.

The City College student health insurance brochure states, “The benefits and costs of the GHI/CUNY Student Health Insurance Plan were designed with the student’s budget in mind.”
In addition to providing the form for GHI Insurance, other insurance companies visit the school regularly to sell students plans.

CUNY drafted its policy with GHI in 2006. Right now, the price is approximately $230 monthly for a single individual, though it might increase in the near future, according to Karen Chaiken, assistant director of public relations for EmblemHealth.

“It’s a function of whether there are additional benefits being added,” Chaiken said.

Some benefits included in the CUNY plan are in-network hospital and medical benefits, primary care visits without a referral, 10 physical therapy visits, management for certain chronic conditions, and maternity care.

“It’s pretty customary,” Chaiken said. “My understanding is that it is a well-priced plan for the benefits students get.”

Under the CUNY plan, “They get good basic care,” she said. “If there’s a need, they will be tended to. It’s a sense of security, and it takes care of basic coverage.”