Many experts have said that health care reform will help get more students insured, but that may not be the case.  In a study conducted by the US Government Accountability Office back in 2008, it was found that 1.7 million traditional age students from 18-23 were not covered by student health insurance which comes out to about 20% of the college age study body.  Health care reform hopes to increase this percent, but it will take efforts all around.

According to the article “Student Health Care Won’t Change” found on UVUReview.com, most students who are willing to pay for insurance were already with other providers or on their parents health insurance policies so the college group isn’t usually large enough to be attractive to a provider.  Senior Director of Student Health Services, Bill Erb, said there haven’t been too many attempts to bring providers onto campus for this reason.  Erb believes the insurance would have to be mandatory in order for the provider to see coming to campuses as lucrative.

Mandatory health insurance programs at schools has been explored, but it never really takes off.  Part of the reason is competition.  It’s hard for providers to compete with the low rates of parents’ employers plans or government plans that eligible students may use.  School administrators aren’t addressing the health insurance issue because they have so many other problems on their plate but it’s a concern that is mounting and could end up being a problem once it’s required by law for everyone to have health insurance.  There is still time for schools to figure out a solution to student health care reform but it may take years to come to any conclusion that is simple and effective.