Tufts Daily

Issue date: 4/28/08 Section: Features

Media Credit: Meredith Klein/Tufts Daily Students covered by Tufts' health insurance plan frequently encounter administrative difficulties as they seek proper care.

When Tufts sophomore Julie* made a visit to her doctor in her home state of New York last summer to take care of a wheezing cough, she didn't anticipate the long string of bills and phone calls that would ensue.

Julie, who is covered by the Tufts' student insurance plan, said that because her visit was categorized as preventative care - which is not covered by the Tufts student health plan - she was told she would have to pay the $350 bill out of pocket.

Working with the doctor's office to help clear up miscommunication and re-categorize the nature of her visit, Julie has been seeking reimbursement from Aetna, the provider of student health insurance at Tufts, for nearly a year.

"Since then, there's been a huge ongoing insurance battle between me, my doctors' office and the insurance company," the sophomore said. "There are a bunch of things that I'm really unhappy with, with the student health insurance."

For students like Julie in Massachusetts with Qualifying Student Health Insurance Program (QSHIP) plans, oft-inadequate coverage and administrative difficulties can cloud the ultimate goal of receiving proper care and treatment.

Andrew Cohen, the community research coordinator for Boston-based healthcare advocacy group the Access Project, explained that legislation in 1989 under former Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis began requiring that all college students in the state have health insurance, either through private plans or by purchasing QSHIP plans through students' respective universities.

"When they were passing this mandate, there was a big problem with students not having enough insurance, and they made some basic guidelines that insurance had to follow to make sure that students were going to get good coverage," Cohen said.

The legislation passed nearly two decades ago, however, is now creating difficulties for current-day college students in Massachusetts.

"What might have been good for students at the time, in 1989, has not changed enough to keep up with the times and is now inadequate," he said. "For instance, on many of these student policies, they're inadequate because … they have very low coverage caps."

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