A Mandatory Student Health Insurance Program at a Large State University

Abstract

A new compulsory-with-waiver health insurance plan at the State University of New York at Buffalo (SUN-YAB) was designed in 1976 after assessing available literature on students' insurance, morbidity, health care costs, attitudes, data from past SUNYAB insurance plans and health service statistics. Previous findings that the morbidity of this population is low is corroborated by the data available on the students considered within this project. Illnesses common to this age group are predominantly acute, and require a low rate of hospitalization. The new insurance program cost an unmarried single student $67.00 and was a success by several criteria. Approximately 5,000 more students were enrolled in the complusory plan than in the previous voluntary one. Among students interviewed, both those who enrolled and those who did not, felt that the idea of compulsory health insurance for students was a good idea. Virtually all full-time students in the university were covered by some health insurance.