Washington University remained one of three universities in the nation to require its students to purchase health insurance this year, despite a change in provider for the 2006-2007 school year. Nearly all other schools allow students with other coverage, often through parents, to opt out of their university’s plan.

This year, the University will use the Lewer Agency, an insurance firm based in Kansas City, to provide coverage rather than the Chickering Group, the school’s provider since spring 2001.

Most services will remain the same, though students may now purchase optional prescription drug coverage. For an optional fee of $94.28, the plan will provide students prescriptions at a discounted price.

Only Howard University, California Institute of Technology and Washington University use a mandatory fee to ensure all students have coverage.

That policy has irked some parents, who would rather rely on their own insurance policies to cover their students. Because the University includes insurance in its health fee, parents often pay for redundant health insurance policies.

Rick Friedman, a parent who opposes the mandatory insurance policy, has been particularly vocal in his complaints to the University. When filing an insurance claim for his son, he found the University-provided plan and his own health insurance plan overlapped and could not be used together.

Health insurance constitutes the major component of the Student Health fee, a bill that will total $660 for this year. At schools that do not provide insurance, comparable fees usually total between $100 and $200.

“There is no reason that I or any other parent should have to pay $660 for health coverage that is inferior to our own,” said Friedman.

According to the University’s Web site, the undergraduate population comprises between 5,200 and 6,000 students. By Friedman’s estimation, the excess cost of insurance across this number of students totals millions of dollars.

According to Dr. Alan Glass, director of Student Health Services, the decision to provide health insurance for all students resulted from an intensive study of students’ medical access conducted in 2000 and 2001. Before the University began to provide insurance, he explained, 10 percent of the student body was totally uninsured and 65 percent were underinsured.

Prompted by these findings, the University adopted its current insurance policy in 2001.

Glass explained that under a policy including the ability to opt out, some students would be left underinsured.

“For example, a lot of people may be able to produce an insurance card,” said Glass. “But if the policy limit on that is $10,000 or $12,000, that doesn’t even cover a complicated appendectomy in this day and age.”

The insurance policy provided by the University provides $500,000 in annual coverage.

He explained that the opt-out policy was examined as part of the study but ultimately deemed lacking.

“A person might produce an insurance card today,” said Glass. “[If] their job situation changes. two months down the way, and all of a sudden they don’t have adequate insurance.”

According to the results of the 2001 study, opt-out policies at other schools often leave a significant part of the student population uninsured or underinsured.

Glass also explained that the cost of an insurance policy is significantly diminished when all students are covered under one plan. If the school were to institute an opt-out policy, the same plan that is currently offered would cost between two and three times as much as the current fee.

A mandatory insurance policy, Glass said, makes medical access affordable for those who need it.

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