You may have known this was coming, Technician article:
http://www.technicianonline.com/viewpoint/mandated-health-care-hurts-students-1.2188087

Announcement on student health website:
http://www.ncsu.edu/student_health/whatsNew/healthinsurance.html

The goodies:

In addition to tuition, fees, and whatever other charges you pay to the university, if you don't have health insurance, add $744 per year that you pay to AIG dressed up like something that isn't evil.

From student health site:

Quote :

"How does a student waive out of the UNC system-wide student health insurance plan? Any student meeting all three criteria above who has an existing creditable coverage health insurance policy is able to waive out of the UNC system-wide plan easily and quickly on-line. No paperwork is required. (Have insurance card in hand to provide the insurance company's name, address, phone, policy holder's name, member ID/subscriber#, effective date and termination date of policy.)"

So if you do have health insurance, don't worry, you get to submit all your personal records to shady Pearce & Pearce (same as studentinsurance.com) - the meaningless name has the contract with the UNC system, selected over Blue Cross Blue Shield. You can verify that in general their plans are:

Underwritten by:
National Union Fire Insurance Company
of Pittsburgh, Pa,

This info is specific to policy statements, see:
https://www.pearceandpearce.com/PearceSite/Schools/OH/OCPM/PDFs/OCPMDepbr09.pdf
https://www.pearceandpearce.com/PearceSite/Schools/nc/wssu/PDFs/wssubr06.pdf
https://www.pearceandpearce.com/PearceSite/Source/PDFs/TN/0910tnbordom.pdf

The list goes on, suffice it to say that National Union Fire Insurance Company (I'll denote NUFIC) will underwrite the NCSU policy.

NUFIC appears to be a holding of AIG. I did see a credible-looking pdf on the interweb that unambiguously proves the connection:

http://www.usg.edu/student_affairs/faq/health/aig_letter030309.pdf

Not convinced? Find where Wikipedia got it from.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holdings_of_American_International_Group
Listed in California.

But your insurer won't divulge your personal records right? Wrong.

https://www.pearceandpearce.com/PearceSite/ViewPrivacy.asp

Quote :

"We may at times need to disclose your personal information to determine waiver approval, underwrite your health insurance coverage, process and record your premium payments, communicate your eligibility for benefits as provided in the policies, protect you against fraud, and to service health insurance claims. "

Mandated health insurance seems to be getting off to a quick start!

3/16/2010 10:53:11 AM

wow. what garbage.

3/16/2010 11:07:34 AM

why is there a need for this? what is the school's interest in this?

3/16/2010 12:22:40 PM

So are students with their own health plans subsidizing this with their tuition? From reading the NCSU announcement the student premium is much lower than the actual cost of insuring someone (compare the student premium to spouse or non-half time student premiums).

3/16/2010 1:59:28 PM

First of all, I think the system's thinking in mandating health insurance is pretty clear. It will slightly preempt the legislation that mandates health care.

At least for students case, the "do nothing" option actually provides a valid health care plan. In congress's legislation, the "do nothing" option is to pay a fine for not having health care. In as much as the UNC system is fixing that problem, then sure, that makes sense.

But we don't yet know if the national legislation will pass. If it does, people will praise the UNC system's move. If not, it could be a hard sell.

^ I actually doubt that. After all, any student who already has health coverage can opt for the Pearson & Pearson option. I think they just used the combined bargaining power of all the UNC schools to negotiate a really low rate. I doubt the coverage is going to be very good, and it's insuring about the lowest risk group you can possibly think of. I would offer that the spouse/dependent coverage may be higher because those individuals are self-selected and also more costly.

[Edited on March 16, 2010 at 2:04 PM. Reason : reply]

3/16/2010 2:01:17 PM

given the national debate on the issue, even though I'm not sure which side of the fence I stand on this issue, I was a bit taken aback by this sweeping declaration by the university system regarding it's students

jesus christ

I mean, how can they do that... there are all kinds people who will disagree whole heartedly with this policy decision

it's ballsy or arrogant or... I don't know

I'm kind of dumbfounded

3/16/2010 3:40:51 PM

so... what happens when a student with no insurance comes to NCSU with a slew of medical problems... will the insurer be able to deny them? That would seem to be a fucking GREAT plan here. Apply to be a part-time student or something, and you get pretty cheap insurance. hot damn!

3/16/2010 8:41:52 PM

^ since this is for the entire UNC system they'll probably just apply to UNCW

3/16/2010 8:53:48 PM

What does the policy cover, if anything? Ovarian cysts for men?

3/16/2010 9:13:53 PM

you laugh, but I know a guy who had that...

3/16/2010 9:45:41 PM