It was a random accident that broke Greg Tatham’s leg. A day on the golf course, chasing a ball on the golf cart and his leg — which was hanging out of the cart — hit an out of bounds stick.
“Snapped it,” Tatham said. “I had to have surgery. If a student has an accident like that and doesn’t have any insurance … many students would have to leave school.”
Tatham is the assistant vice provost for Student Affairs and in charge of the Student Health Insurance Program.
“Take advantage of (SHIP),” Tatham said. “If you aren’t feeling well, make sure you come over to the student health. If you have an issue don’t wait until it’s Monday morning and you’re sick as a dog. If you need a wellness exam or any of those types of things that we offer through our program, take advantage of it because that’s what it’s for.”
All degree-seeking students attending the University of Idaho are required to have health insurance, as mandated by the Idaho State Board of Education. If they don’t have insurance that meets the minimum requirements — being effective before the first day of school and covering both accident and illness — students will be automatically enrolled in SHIP.
UI contracts with United Healthcare to provide students with a relatively low-cost insurance option, Tatham said.
“Our population is normally much healthier, since they’re 18-26-year-olds, than a normal population would be that (United Healthcare) serves,” Tatham said. “So we are able to get a very high quality health insurance for a very reasonable cost.”
And, Tatham said, UI doesn’t profit from the insurance program.
“Any money we make we put back into the program by offering free meningitis shots or free flu clinics or discounting some of the services offered at the Student Health Clinic, keeping the co-payments down — that type of thing,” Tatham said. “And then part of it we keep in a reserve fund too in case something happens with the program.”
Low price, high quality
Lori Krasselt, Student Health Insurance Program manager, said students often don’t realize the quality of the insurance they are receiving through SHIP.
SHIP is charged by semester and is eligible to be paid for through financial aid awards, something that isn’t the case with regular insurance. There are no deductibles for prescriptions or services at the Student Health Clinic and in-network providers — only co-pays are required.
“Immunizations and vaccinations, annual wellness exams, all of the preventative care student services that are under (the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act), those are covered at 100 percent,” Krasselt said.And that is the idea behind the student insurance — to make it affordable and high-quality.
“We’ve worked very hard over several years to make it an affordable plan but also cost effective to give the students access to care,” Krasselt said. “I just really don’t think the students realize how good it is and that’s unfortunate.”
The future of SHIP
Tatham said the student insurance program will likely see changes in the future, in light of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
“I think the dynamics of what is happening with the new healthcare law — it’s going to take a couple of years to kind of get that figured out,” Tatham said. “Under this new law, theoretically everyone’s going to have health insurance. It won’t be the quality, but at the same time it will be some form of health insurance. So that may change what happens with our program or what happens with the (SBOE) in how they write the program and write the conditions that students have to meet to be able to qualify.”
In the meantime, however, Tatham’s advice to students still stands — take advantage of SHIP.
“Stuff happens,” Tatham said. “This broken leg of mine was an accident, a stupid accident … take advantage of what the program offers.”
Kaitlin Moroney can be reached at [email protected]