The student health center is almost always packed this time of year. With cold and flu season in full swing, more and more students have been visiting the campus clinic as well as their personal physicians off campus.
Students are offered a free consultation with any of the doctors at the campus clinic, but talking can only do so much. Students have to pay for any medications, tests or procedures they receive as a part of their diagnosis or treatment at the clinic.
With the recent implementation of the Affordable Care Act, young people can stay on their parents’ health insurance until the age of 26 before having to seek their own coverage.
This is exactly the case with John Lester, a junior majoring in finance and Chinese.
“For the time being, I’m on my parents’ plan,” Lester said. “When I graduate I’m hoping to find a job that would provide stuff like that for me.”
Seventy-six percent of the students that come to the campus Health Center have insurance, according to operations supervisor Jennifer Varner. That leaves 24 percent of the clinic’s patients paying out of pocket or adding the charges to their bursar accounts.
Dr. Travis Yates, director of university health services, said he is aware of how many people are without health insurance and encourages students to take advantage of the health center because it is cheaper for students.
“It is something that worries me. When students are uninsured I’m very aware of the fact that the financial burden of any testing they undergo falls directly onto their shoulders,” Yates said. “Fortunately, the services we provide at the clinic are available to students at a much lower cost compared to other facilities here in town. But in an ideal world, everyone would have insurance.”
The university does offer different insurance opportunities to both graduate students and students studying abroad. The Graduate School at Ole Miss requires all graduate students in assistantship positions to have health coverage. If the graduate assistants are not already on their own plan or their parents’ plan, then they are provided the option of taking out insurance through the school.
Students going outside the country through the Ole Miss Study Abroad Office are put on a coverage plan through the Cultural Insurance Services International program. The program covers nearly every issue imaginable that a student might encounter while abroad. Cultural Insurance Services International covers everything from a student’s medical bills to any expenses that might arise during an evacuation brought on by an emergency medical or political situation.
Elise Luers, a senior in the Croft Institute, regularly worries about her lack of health insurance. Luers is enlisting in the Navy immediately upon graduation and looks forward to not having to worry about how she will pay for medical bills if and when issues arise. For now, she describes it as a, “waiting game and a worrying game.
“Health insurance is certainly at the forefront of my worries right now,” Luers said. “I always think ‘what if something happens?’ And with Obamacare all over the news all the time, it’s hard not to think about. It’s nerve-wracking for sure.”
