Although Bemdiji State University administration knew months in advance, BSU students ran straight into a brick wall labeled “mandatory health insurance policy” only one week before registration for spring term began.
BY JENNA LONG
Bemidji State University implemented a policy requiring all students enrolled in six or more credits to have health insurance. With health care on the minds of most Americans, BSU’s decision should have come as no surprise to the student body. The policy was adapted by student senate on April 27, 2011, set to be effective for the 2012 spring term.
The policy requires students only to provide the name of their health care providers during the class registration process, and any insurance company is acceptable. For students without health care, BSU has provided an affordable option through United Healthcare. For just over a thousand dollars a year, students can be insured for most medical expenses, excluding eye and dental. Students can also buy insurance for individual semesters which are priced separately.
The problem that I see in BSU’s new policy is not the idea of mandatory health insurance for students but instead the untimely manner that the policy was brought to the students’ attention.
Although the policy passed through student senate in late April 2011, most students had no idea that they would need insurance to register for spring semester until a week before registration windows began to open. “Our senate meetings are on T.V.,” Joe Moubry, the university liaison and senate cabinet member, stated when asked why the policy wasn’t publicized to students. “Why haven’t students been watching or coming to us with their concerns?” The simple answer to Moubry’s questions is that college students are simply not interested in watching a meeting on T.V.
Students were not directly informed about the health insurance policy going into effect until an e-mail sent on Oct. 17, 2011, by Mary Ward, interim vice president of student development and enrollment. There was no e-mail sent to students informing them of the policy in spring 2011 when it was passed nor was a notification sent out at the beginning of the 2011 fall semester. Pres. Hanson believes that the lack of communication between BSU administration and the student body was due to Mary Ward being hired in July 2011, taking over for Lisa Irwin who sparked the interest in making health insurance mandatory.
This, to me, is not an acceptable reason for students to remain uninformed of such an important addition to the registration process. A letter or e-mail should have been sent as soon as the policy was officially adapted, and another should have been sent at the beginning of fall 2011. The lack of communication has resulted in students scrambling to find and pay for affordable insurance before their registration window opens. “I think it’s stupid that they didn’t let us know sooner. I don’t have time to look into insurances and find the best kind for me. Now I’m stuck and probably won't be able to register right away. I'll loose time because of this,” Richard Lawless, an un-insured BSU student said, expressing some frustration. Some students, like Tara Rootes who has five children, a husband, and a job, will have to take money from student loans in order to afford personal health insurance. "Trust me, if I could afford to have insurance for myself or my kids, I would," Rootes explained. With student debt now higher than credit card debt in the U.S., I do not think it is wise to raise the cost of living for a student attending college.
The health insurance policy is a good in theory, and we will have to wait and see how it actually works at BSU. Minnesota State University Moorhead has the same policy in place at their school and administration says that it has worked well and the students seem to like it. Currently no other university affiliated with MnSCU has a mandatory insurance policy. If the policy had been brought to students’ attention in a more timely fashion, allowing the approximate 12% of BSU students without insurance to explore different options, I’m sure it would have been more widely accepted by the student body.
Health insurance should be something that everybody has; I’m just not sure that it is the job of a state university to require that students, of all the demographics in the country, have it.
Jenna Long is an freshman at Bemidji State University majoring in Business Administration. She has health insurance through her parents' policy.
