Shannon:
“I had multiple soft-tissue overuse-type injuries in late 2005-early 2006, which my insurance company (student health via BU) processed all as one claim. Given their per condition cap, essentially this amounted to trying to pay claims for only 1 condition instead of 4. I sent multiple letters to them, including spreadsheets that detailed exactly which claims pertained to which diagnois, and yet they continued to reply with new spreadsheets that simply re-arranged their bad math. It wasn’t until I threatened legal action that the matter was finally sorted out. To this day, they “investigate” every claim I submit, in order to delay payment.

I’m currently studying physical therapy, and so one current trend with all insurance companies is particularly relevant to me. Copay prices are skyrocketing (when I started grad school, an office visit was $10; now it’s $25). For something that requires multiple visits, such as physical therapy, this can impact service rendered substantially. For instance, consider a student rehabbing a re-constructed ACL. They’re told to see a PT, say, 2x/wk x 8 wks. The out-of-pocket cost difference is staggering, and may lead to the student missing treatment to save money– so much so that treatment becomes ineffective (think of it like only taking 1/2 of a cycle of antibiotics if you have strep throat– how much will it really help you?). In the future, the insurance company can use this as “evidence” that physical therapy as a whole is ineffective and should not be funded at all, which is exactly the opposite of the truth.

BU is taking steps towards decreasing the impact of this particular policy change. The Ryan Center physical therapy clinic has negotiated with Chickering/Aetna to decrease student copays in their clinic to $15/visit. This is great news! However, since it is to my knowledge the only PT clinic in the plan to have this lowered copay, it also leaves the BU clinic serving nearly the entire student body– some 30 thousand students, if I remember the figure correctly.”

It’s very hard to believe policy makers are not aware of the negative health insurance environment for college students. After all, presumably, they have children in college themselves, have staff and colleagues they consult with, and are well informed with regard to the college health insurance literature.

If the college health insurance situation doesn’t improve soon, perhaps American college students may consider the value added of obtaining their degree overseas in nations where the health care support for students is better than the US.

For anyone who is a college student, or who may have children who are college students, it may be worth your time to investigate this. An added incentive may be that tuition & fees costs overseas may be lower than in the US. This may not be so far fetched when we consider the trend toward off shoring including medical tourism and other areas in the health industry

If enough American college students vote with their feet and gain overseas college degrees, by the law of supply and demand the US college health insurance environment should improve

V/R
Mark Friedman

PS My family and I, with thanks to the Access Project & Health Law Advocates, are “survivors” of student health insurance.