Summer Term

Summer Term and your Student Health Insurance—a perplexing problem and a hopeful solution on the horizon.

Students at OHSU are required to have insurance while they are students. This is explained elsewhere on this website insurance section. (For exceptions see the OHSU Fee Book.) You are automatically enrolled in this insurance program on the first day of the month in which your classes start.

Some OHSU programs (1st year School of Medicine; 1st and 2nd year School of Nursing OCNE undergraduates; and until recently, 1st year School of Dentistry) have summer term breaks. During these breaks, the students are actually not enrolled as students. They consider themselves medical and nursing students, since they intend to return in the fall to resume their professional studies, but the University, and most importantly the financial aid rules, consider them non-students, since they are not enrolled. Financial aid cannot be applied to the cost of summer insurance when billed at the beginning of summer when the student is not in school.

This creates a situation in which the school is not assessing fees, either for tuition or other fees such as Student Health Service and Student Health Insurance.

The students who are on break for the summer who want to continue their insurance in force during the summer, must therefore arrange prior to the beginning of the summer (during spring term) to pay the premium for the insurance by applying to do so through the Student Health Service.

This has been a problem for many students who without financial aid find the summer premium to be a hardship. Some of these students find individual high deductible plans to cover the summer term, others “go bare” without insurance at all. Unanticipated health costs can be disastrous for these students.

A solution for the students enrolled in 2008-2009 is being developed for the summer of 2009. Instead of charging students each term for the insurance coverage for each term, a term at a time, the new system would be to provide 12 months of coverage to be paid for in three installments, at Fall, Winter, and Spring terms. This would be in compliance with financial aid rules, and thus be covered as a legitimate expense by financial aid. Students who are on summer break would have the same uninterrupted insurance coverage.

There are many details to be worked out before implementing this new system in the fall of 2008 for the 2008-2009 year. And unfortunately, this solution will not be in place for summer term, 2008.

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This page last updated 02262008

J:sharing/website pages/summer term problem 02262008.doc