Schools across the country are seeing increases in both student enrollment in university-provided health insurance plans and student use of university health centers.
The AU Student Health Center has experienced this trend as well, according to SHC Director Dan Bruey, who said more students have visited the health center so far this year than last year. The SHC has seen approximately 300 to 400 more patients than at the same time last year, according to Bruey.
The SHC received a total of 13,702 visits last year, according to Bruey. The fact that it has already seen more patients than it did at the same time last year “is a good indicator of how the end of this year is going to look,” Bruey said.
Reasons for students to choose the SHC over other care providers vary, but Bruey cites the center’s low costs and this year’s concern over the H1N1 virus as reasons for the increase in visits.
“If students are using us because of different economic situations with their parents, I think students see us as a low-cost, quality option,” Bruey said.
A routine visit to the SHC costs $20, and a physical exam and women’s gynecological exam are both $30, according to the SHC Web site. A visit with a psychiatrist costs $75 for the first visit and $35 for a follow-up visit.
Improvements to the health center’s facilities and staff are also reasons that could have contributed to the continual increase in student use that Bruey has noticed over the years that he has been here.
Since 2004, the SHC facility has moved from Nebraska Hall to McCabe Hall and increased and stabilized its staff. In the period of time that followed, student trips to the health center have fluctuated between 12,000 and 15,000 visits per year, Bruey said.
The number of students who enroll in the student health insurance plan at AU has also fluctuated since the 2005-2006 academic year, but there was a marked increase of 217 students around the time when the recession began. The number of students enrolled rose from 3,032 in the 2007-2008 academic year to 3,249 in the 2008-2009 academic year, according to the SHC’s annual report.
This year, there are 3,144 students enrolled in the insurance plan, but this does not include the numbers of students that will enroll in the spring semester, which is usually around 100 to 200 each year, Bruey said.
Compared to other schools in D.C., AU’s health insurance is among the cheapest.
While an annual premium for an unmarried student with no dependents is $1,550 at AU for the 2009-2010 year, at George Washington University, the premium is $1,614, and at Georgetown University, the premium is $1,700, according to each school’s health center Web sites.
On average, less than one-third of the AU population takes the university-provided health insurance, even though AU’s insurance can be less expensive than employment plans that students’ parents may have, according to Bruey.
“People do the cost/benefit analysis ... and our plan is usually less expensive,” he said. “For most of the students who enroll in this plan, it is their only option, cost-wise.”
You can reach this staff writer at mfowler@theeagleonline.com.
