Hands down, the United States provides some of the most expensive and state of the art medical technology to successfully treat hundreds of thousands of patients every year. We pride ourselves on the ability to expand cutting edge research, to develop new medicines and to attract highly qualified physicians from all over the world. But although many lives have been improved by these successes, the cost of such privileges is becoming a little more than we can bear.The United States currently pays more than any other industrialized nation for health care benefits. It spends an average of roughly $7,000 per person every year-nearly 16 percent of the GDP-solely for health care. Statistics have shown that the cost of providing quality care continues to rise at an alarming rate every year.

But should we be concerned? For the most part, we are young and healthy students. Even though we may occasionally have some some health issues, we will always have health insurance to pay for the excellent medical services the United States provides, right? Wrong. The truth of the matter is that there are currently 45.8 million Americans today without health insurance, and an estimated 10 percent of this population is college students.

In Massachusetts alone, there are nearly 75,000 uninsured adults between the ages of 19 and 24, and young adults have had significantly lower insurance rates than any other group of individuals in the United States, including the elderly. In addition, insurance premiums are continuing to rise, and it is expected that the number of uninsured college students in America will grow another 1.1 million in the next decade.

In an effort to control the rising costs of care, health insurance companies have begun to limit certain access to health care, particularly for young adults. Many previously existing insurance plans designed to attract college students placed stringent limitations and high fees on health services, making these policies practically useless. Over the past several years many plans have begun to charge exorbitant surgeons' fees, put caps on outpatient care or limit treatment to very specific conditions.

Additionally, although nearly 75 percent of Massachusetts residents have employmentbased health insurance, many of these health insurance contracts have designated age-based health cutoffs for members aged 19 to 23. With such a large population of college-level students living in Massachusetts, commonwealth officials knew something had to be done at the university level.

In 2006, Brandeis was directly affected by the Commonwealth Care Act passed by then Gov. Mitt Romney, which requires that all full-time college students-students who spend more than three-quarters of their time at school-must have some form of health insurance. The policy has made significant advances in providing reliable and affordable access to care. Here at Brandeis, approximately 2,400 undergraduates claimed private insurance, and another 600 students claimed a health insurance policy offered by the University, according to Dianna Baccari, insurance coordinator at the Brandeis health center.

The University's plan, Qualifying Student Health Insurance Plan, offers 100 percent coverage for health services listed under the preferred provider physician listing and will cover any student willing to pay approximately $1,500 a semester for these services.

For more complex cases, students can be placed under the care of special physicians listed under the non-preferred provider list. This option requires that students pay 20 percent and Brandeis pay the remaining 80 percent of hospital and service fees for the treatment. Since last year, Brandeis has increased the amount of allowable money for health services from $2,000 to $3,000, offers $1,500 for prescription costs and an additional $2,000 for specific high-cost procedures, according to Kathleen Maloney, nursing director at the health center.

Maloney admitted that "the Commonwealth Care Act will take some getting used to," but for the most part, the legislation is ultimately forcing colleges to provide a majority of their students will some form of health care.

It seems that as HMO insurance premiums continue to rise, more and more students may choose to sign up for Q-SHIP in the years to come. Our health center may be forced to develop a plan to accommodate the increases in student enrollment very soon. Additional full-time physicians and nurses may be necessary to maintain a level of quality and efficient care to students.

New medical equipment may also be required to supply students who have a variety of potentially serious illnesses with accurate imaging and lab studies. But our health center is still a university health center, and will never be at the medical proficiency of a hospital. Perhaps the most practical consideration for Brandeis, then, would be one that provides efficient transportation to and from Beth Israel, and despite the increases in student attendance, still sustains a well-organized administrative process. Perhaps an even better plan would be to just lower those insurance premiums, but that one might take a little longer.



The writer is a member of the Class of 2010.