University health centers at schools in the Oregon University System offer an array of services at a fraction of the cost of off-campus medical centers, but there are some things they just can’t provide. As a result, students without insurance can sometimes find themselves in dire straits.
In order to address the healthcare situation, the State Board of Higher Education passed a resolution in March 2000 assembling a student health insurance task force. The task force was charged with determining whether it would be possible to institute a student health insurance program for the entire Oregon University System. Last week, the task force had its answer.
“We’ve come to the conclusion that it looks like a feasible thing,” said Larry Roper, director of the task force. “After two years, we’re now closer to the end than to the beginning.”
The task force has narrowed its focus from extended insurance for all OUS students to a more manageable plan of mandatory basic insurance, Roper said. This would give students access to care outside university health centers at a cost similar to what they pay at the health centers.
While the details of the plan still have to be ironed out, Roper said, the idea is that the cost of the insurance would be added to the existing health fee paid by all OUS students.
According to Dr. Gerald Fleischli, director of the University Health Center and a member of the task force, the goal is to keep the cost to students in the $20-$25 per term range. Students at the University currently pay a $96 per term health fee that helps subsidize the Health Center — allowing them to charge $6 for an office visit that might cost between $50 and $75 somewhere else.
However, there are some services that the Health Center does not offer, and that’s where the new plan comes in, Fleischli said. For example, the Health Center does not provide CAT scans or MRIs. Fleischli said one of the aims of the new OUS plan is to offer students access to off-campus medical services.
Details are still being debated about what treatments or costs the new coverage would subsidize. The biggest problem, according to Fleischli, is that different health centers have different needs. For example, the University of Oregon’s health center is the only OUS facility that has its own X-ray machine, so the task force needs to determine whether the insurance will cover X-rays before submitting a proposal to the State Board of Higher Education.
The next step would be for the board to approve the proposal. Tim Young, a University political science major and student representative to the Board of Higher Education, said that while he hasn’t seen any proposals, he would have a number of questions before approving a policy of mandatory basic insurance.
“My big concern would be how this relates to the Oregon Health Plan,” he said. “A lot of students over 24 have access to the Oregon Health Plan, and I would like to know how this would affect them.”
The Oregon Health Plan offers medical, dental and mental health benefits at little or no cost to Oregonians below the poverty line. It is available to Pell-eligible students statewide who have not been covered by major health insurance providers for at least six months.
Fleischli, however, is confident that the process will go forward, and he said that if all goes well the new coverage could be in place as early as next fall.
“We’re a couple weeks away from giving a proposal to the board,” he said. “Our recommendation will be to implement a trial version of the program in the fall of 2002.”