Health Insurance required next year for Emory students

By Jessica Rudish

Executive Staff Writer

September 09, 2005





All Emory students will be required to carry health insurance next fall, bringing the university’s policy in line with those at most other top 20 universities.



The new requirement, approved last December by University President James W. Wagner and the Board of Trustees, mandates that all students at the university be covered in the state of Georgia by health insurance prior to enrolling at Emory, said Michael Huey, executive director of University Health Services.



The plan will apply to students currently attending the university as well incoming students.



“Emory is a serious outlier on this issue,” he said. “It’s just too expensive in America to have a significant medical problem and not be insured. So Emory is stepping in line with other universities who reached this conclusion — many of them quite a while ago — that it’s something that we feel is very important.”



International students and those enrolled at the School of Medicine, Rollins School of Public Health and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences all must have coverage, Huey said. They comprise about 40 percent of the student body. Students at the rest of the university’s divisions will be required to have a policy in fall 2006.



All students will have to register their insurance information at the Univerity Health Services Web site. Those who do not have any insurance or whose current plans do not cover them in Georgia will have to purchase a plan through the Health Services.



“Our feeling is students ought to be able to have their own insurance,” Huey said. “It just has to be an insurance plan that provides them with care in Atlanta because many students have plans that are restricted to another state.”



The university offers a plan through Aetna insurance company. Although the cost of the policy will vary from year to year, for those at the Rollins School of Public Health — which just made insurance mandatory for its students this fall — the plan costs $1,671.



Julia Perreault, director of financial aid, said students’ aid packages will be adjusted to include the cost of insurance.



Most of the people who will need to purchase a plan will be graduate students, she said.



“For the graduate, professional-level students, the majority will probably not be covered on parents’ policies,” Perreault said. “What we will be able to look at is what Emory is building into the budget for the mandatory insurance and allow the students’ budget to be increased for that much. And then we’ll be able to process a loan for the student to cover that cost.”



Jamie Pina, a second-year public health student, said he opted for the university’s plan even before it was mandatory.



“I’m aware of the dangers of not having health insurance,” he said. “By studying public health, I’ve read about people who have to lose their houses because they don’t have health insurance.”



Mohua Basu, a College sophomore who has health insurance, said she would take out additional loans to cover the cost of insurance if she didn’t already have it.



“I think it’s necessary to have health insurance, so I think it would be okay,” she said.



The initiative for a mandatory universal health insurance policy started about three years ago when administrators created the Student Health Insurance Committee under Huey’s leadership.



The purpose of the new policy is to help ensure that unforeseen illness or injuries do not derail an academic career because of lack of finances, said John Ford, senior vice president and dean for Campus Life.



“At Emory we felt that with the cost of health care rising every year, [it] is really important for the students to be able to pay for it without having their studies disrupted,” he said. “It’s really a matter of insurance protection for students that support the academic mission of the university.”