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Chapel Hill -- Currently, the health insurance plans for students offered by the 16 college campuses in the UNC system are as varied as the mascots at each school in terms of coverage and costs.
But that's set to change next fall with a new systemwide health insurance plan under which students on all campuses will be charged the same rate -- $610 a year -- for a basic health insurance plan.
Students can opt out of the system's new "hard waiver" policy by purchasing private health insurance or showing proof of insurance through parents or an employer.
By going to a unified health insurance plan, university officials are eliminating wide disparities in premiums, which ranged from a low of $380 at the UNC School of Arts to $1,565 at UNC Chapel Hill.
Maximum basic benefits also range from $5,000 to $250,000 and deductibles from $0 to $350 under the current system.
Under the new plan going into effect in the fall, the maximum benefit per year is $100,000 and the maximum deductible is $300, with deductibles being waived for services received at student health centers. Students may also purchase upgrades.
Officials say the new policy allows the system to use its considerable economic muscle to command the lowest possible rates.
Bruce Mallette, senior associate vice president for academic and student affairs, said parents of students in the system continue to be hit with job losses as a result of the lingering financial crisis.
So, for some students, opting out of the system's health plan might no longer be an option, Mallette said.
"That's why we wanted an affordable health insurance option," Mallette said.
The university system issued a Request for Proposal for the base-line health insurance plan in September.
It awarded the contract to Pearce & Pearce Inc., a Florence, S.C.,-based insurance provider that specializes in student health insurance in December.
Pearce & Pearce will also offer students a voluntary dental insurance plan for $303 a year.
Mallette said the contract with Pearce & Pearce is for five years -- three annual agreements with a couple of one-year extensions.
"There will be a very substantive view of its usage each year," Mallette said.
Officials expect about 60,000 of the systems more than 215,000 students to sign up for the health plan with about 140,000 opting out.
"Those are fair guesstimates," Mallette said. "Those numbers could change depending on what happens with the economy."
Starting in April, Mallette said students will be able to go online and either sign up or "waive out" of the university system's health plan.
Providing students in the UNC system with access to quality student health insurance is one of the provisions of UNC system President Erskine Bowles' Action Plan for 2009-10.
Bowles said last week that the system's switch to a hard-waiver policy has received a lot of interest from university systems around the nation. He said the move once again puts the UNC system ahead of the curve.
"I can't tell you the number of calls we've received just since we announced that we were going to provide health care insurance to all of our students," Bowles said last week. "People wanted to know 'how'd you do that,' 'how'd you get it done.'"
