Mandated health care hurts students

The Facts:
A new Board of Governors policy will require uninsured students to pay for state-provided health care next year. The cost of the plan is $765.

Our Opinion:
Mandating health care does uninsured students a disservice. Affordable, optional plans would benefit students; but forcing health care upon them puts a barrier on affordable education.

All UNC-system students will be charged an additional $765 fee if they do not have full health insurance coverage next year.

The new Board of Governors regulation, which is mandatory for uninsured students, will be automatically added to students' bills and can only be removed by filing a health-coverage waiver with the University.

In one of Erskine Bowles, the UNC president's, signature policy goals, the Board of Governors set the ground work for mandatory coverage earlier this academic year.
The plan, which will be administered by Pearce and Pearce, a company from South Carolina that specializes in student insurance, will cost the University's uninsured students — approximately 10 percent of the student population — almost $800 a year.

The plan isn't exorbitant by health insurance standards, but why should the University system force students into health insurance they may not want or be able to afford?
In the state constitution, North Carolina's forefathers established a principle which Bowles seems to enjoy ignoring for his own personal inclinations. The constitution explicitly states that public higher education shall be as free as practicable.

Adding an $800 fee to students' bills, on top of a $200 tuition increase and fee inflation does not seem in keeping with the concept of affordability. Students receiving financial aid will receive compensation for the change, but that certainly doesn't apply to all the uninsured students.

It may seem insignificant to the majority of students who have health coverage through their parents or the government, but those sorts of increases can have a debilitating effect on a potential student's ability to attend college.

If even one student has to drop out of school or not apply to a state university because of this additional burden, the system is doing the state — and its future leaders — a disservice.

The system should be commended for its efforts to procure affordable health coverage for students. But the coverage must be optional. Offering students affordable health care coverage without mandating it would allow uninsured students to obtain coverage, but wouldn't put a potentially massive burden on a healthy, uncovered student who doesn't want coverage.

Forcing coverage on students is akin to placing a precondition on university study. One which has the potential to negatively impinge on many students; the UNC system has a responsibility to readdress the change and make it optional before it has a negative impact on public-university students throughout the state.