Student Health Insurance Plan Premiums

Students, staff, and faculty:

Information about the Kansas Board of Regents student health insurance plan, including certificates, enrollment forms and premiums is now available for the 2019-2020 plan year.

The new plan year will be effective August 1, and certain changes to the premiums may significantly affect a small portion of our student body. The approach taken by the Regents has kept premium increases relatively low for incentivized students who are mandated to have health insurance coverage (international and health sciences students including pharmacy students) or who are qualifying GTAs/GRAs/GAs, while some other students who the Regents categorized as “voluntary” — domestic undergraduate students whose academic programs do not require health insurance coverage and graduate students who are not qualifying student employees — will see a significant increase in premiums for this voluntary health plan available to them.

The premium increase addresses the marked increase in cost of claims during the past two years. In arriving at its decision, the Regents concluded there were no ideal scenarios. With input and recommendations of the Student Insurance Advisory Committee, which includes representation from each of the state universities as well as student representation from the Board’s Student Advisory Committee, the Regents approved a plan to place students into separate risk pools — incentivized students and voluntary students — for purposes of setting premiums. This recommendation also was approved by the Board’s full Student Advisory Committee, the Council of Business Officers and the university CEOs.

Because of personal circumstances and coverage choices we can’t know for certain how many KU students will be affected as individuals in the voluntary risk pool, however I want to ensure all students have access to information as they make choices for their health insurance coverage needs. Watkins Health Services offers an insurance information overview for students. Details on the Student Health Insurance Plan and the new premiums can be found on the UnitedHealthcare website.

Students affected by this change should feel free to share their questions with their academic director, chair, or dean, as well as with the Provost Office.

Carl

Carl Lejuez
Interim Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor