With no national health care plan in America’s immediate future, the Student Health and Counseling Center is working to reduce insurance costs for students.

The UNM Student Health Insurance Committee met Tuesday to discuss how to make health insurance affordable with benefits.

Beverly Kloeppel, Student Health Center director, said students need health insurance because health care is expensive without it.

“You really don’t have to have some major health problem. All you have to do is have an accident — fall on a skateboard, hit your head on a bike — and you can rack up significant costs,” Kloeppel said.

More than 700 UNM students pay for UNM health insurance, according to Student Health Insurance Committee statistics. But 35,058 people came to the SHAC for services in 2006. Of those, Kloeppel said about 15 percent of UNM students went without insurance, according to a 2006 survey.

The Committee meets periodically for a few months every year, Kloeppel said. They’re working on uniting all colleges and universities in New Mexico to put together a request for one insurance company with the lowest bid and highest quality. This method, “consortion,” reduces the cost of health care for students.

Colleges in Georgia and Arizona have already used this method to reduce insurance costs, she said, and New Mexico Tech is onboard for the plan.

UNM offers health insurance per year or semester. The spring and summer 2010 semester rate is $864 for January through most of August.

UNM’s insurance is the least expensive out of three peer institutions. University of Arizona charges $953 for the spring semester and University of Utah charges $156 monthly, according to their Web sites. University of Colorado Boulder came in as the most expensive — a mandatory $1,052.50 for all students without health insurance through their parents.

Despite the relatively high price for insurance at UNM, students must pay the money up front and can’t get payment plans unless they sign up for an entire year.

Student Andrea Torrez said if a monthly payment plan was available, she would be more likely to get coverage.

“It has to be a lump-sum payment — that’s what’s hard,” she said. “If it was spread out it wouldn’t be so hard, because it’s better than most.”

Torrez is the only person in her family without health insurance because it is so expensive, she said.

“My husband gets it through his work, but it’s so ridiculous for a spouse and my kids,” she said. “Since I’m in school, they’re lucky enough that they get Salud!, which is like Medicaid for kids.”

Medicaid is free health insurance provided by the state and federal government for families with low income, according to the New Mexico Human Services Department Web site.

Kloeppel said the Student Health Insurance Committee will continue to meet through March. She said staggered payment plans will be part of the discussions. She also said UNM probably won’t make health insurance mandatory like CSU-Boulder.

Teaching and graduate assistants receive free UNM health insurance coverage as part of their employment.

Tamara Zibners, UNM student and teaching assistant, said she now receives free heath care through UNM but purchased it last semester when she wasn’t a TA. She said the insurance can be helpful for all students — if they utilize it.

“The main benefits that I come here for are probably women’s health, and I’ve been going to the counseling services, which is a really wonderful resource to have here,” she said.

Last semester she said she paid around $600 for health insurance at UNM.

*UNM health insurance spring sign-up deadline: Feb. 9

Check the SHAC Web site for the next Student Health Insurance Committee meeting. *