A new committee will consider mandating health insurance for all UW students, among other options, when it evaluates the UW System's insurance policies next semester, according to UW System Assistant Vice President Larry Rubin.
""Not many students have taken advantage of [the System's voluntary insurance] and … in some cases, decide not to have insurance at all,"" Rubin said, adding the current system is financially ""unsustainable.""
UW-Madison Health Services Director Sarah Van Orman was asked to sit on the committee and said one of its main goals will be helping students who have ""serious issues but are either scared to get care … or don't even get care,"" because they are uninsured or underinsured. A recent UHS survey found about 10 percent of UW-Madison students may be uninsured.
Mandating insurance to all students would be a dramatic reform—though UW-Madison already mandates for international and study abroad students—but the committee wouldn't need to look far for examples.
In 2002, an Ohio State University committee recommended a universal mandate, according to its Insurance Director Dyane Plumly, and four other Big Ten universities—Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Northwestern—have adopted a mandate.
Plumly said one year after the mandate, enrollment in Ohio State's insurance increased nine percent and costs dropped two percent.
Each Big Ten mandating university allows students to file a waiver if they have other insurance, though this can be difficult to track without high administrative expensives.
University of Minnesota Director of Student Health Benefits Susann Jackson said only a few thousand of Minnesota's 35,000 waiving students are checked each year, and hundreds of those are caught violating the mandate.
Jackson said Minnesota's benefits have still improved because of the mandate, and students can receive financial aid to pay for insurance.
Health and counseling directors within the UW System have varying opinions about a mandate.
UW-Milwaukee Counseling Director Paul DuPont said he recognized a mandate may increase costs for some students who can't get financial aid, but that, overall, premium cuts would benefit many students.
UW-Whitewater Director of Health Services Ruth Swisher will serve on the committee with Van Orman and said it will need to consider and involve students, especially if a cost-imposing mandate being considered.
