Universities exist to provide an education for students. It is comforting to see UCF working diligently to aid in the lives of students outside of the classroom, but it is coming close to crossing the line. UCF is supporting a proposal that will make health insurance mandatory for all new, full-time students at Florida universities.
We do not support denying education to students without health insurance for several reasons.
Health insurance in the United States is a mess right now. Your elected officials are debating how to provide more affordable and reliable options for everyone. UCF needs to let them fix the health care system before forcing it upon students. It would waste a lot of money and time if UCF staff implemented new procedures then were forced to abandon them only a few months later.
While waiting for the inevitable changes, UCF should provide, at the very least, an understandable option for students who are no longer on their parents’ insurance plans. As it stands now, students are easily frustrated with the daunting task of applying for the health care option the university provides. It is confusing and time-consuming.
The theory that UCF is pushing — that the success of students is threatened if they do not have health insurance — is naïve. Having insurance does not change the fact that a student might not be healthy enough to perform well in an academic environment. It could help with health-related expenses cheaper, but insurance does not eliminate illness. The health insurance options available are not even that affordable for students.
In case anyone forgot about the starving student cliché, we will gladly remind you that it is alive and true. Last year the Bright Futures scholarship program implemented policy changes that reduced the amount of money offered to students. Opposed to being a percentage of the student’s tuition, which was the original promise, the scholarship now pays a set amount per credit hour.
This change alone has started to drain money from the bank accounts of college students as the tuition increased.
The notion that students should just work harder to pay for the cost of health care is problematic, too. To be a successful student you must dedicate several hours a week to attending class and studying, participating clubs and organizations and working at internships. All of these tasks leave little time for work that provides enough income to pay for health insurance.
If you were to attempt to work more you would either need to be a less successful student by eliminating some of your important tasks or eventually get burnt out and sick from packing your schedule beyond what is reasonable. You could take out a student loan, starting or increasing your debt in order to fund the health insurance you did not have prior to the proposed mandate.
UCF needs to be patient while the politicians play with the policies. It does not need to alienate its student body based on health insurance.
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