Uninsured students are claiming that they’d like to purchase the coverage but it costs too much.
According to the results of a poll that were recently released, students from California State University would like to be able to sign up for coverage under the health care reforms, but they believe that it is too expensive.
The survey showed that this is the primary reason that students there have avoided enrollment so far.
The research involved the responses of 836 students from the university, among whom at least 80 percent said that they had not yet purchased their health insurance coverage because they were not able to afford it. An additional 7 percent said that they failed to do so because they don’t feel that they need it. The researchers that conducted the survey handed it out to students on the Los Angeles, San Jose, and Fresno campuses of California State University last September and October.
The health insurance research was conducted by the university, itself.
This survey was held as a part of the Health Insurance Education Project by the Cal State University of Los Angeles’s Department of Public Health. The survey’s results showed that 73 percent of the respondents from the schools claim that they would prefer to have the coverage because “I will have access to care if I need it”. Moreover, another 19 percent said that it was the “responsible thing to do” to purchase a policy.
What it revealed was that this group that has been accused of avoiding purchasing coverage because they are feel that they are “young and invincible” are actually interested in complying with the health care reform, but they have held back from enrollment for other reasons. This, according to the California State L.A Department of Public Health chairman, Walter Zelman, who is also the director of the project.
Zelman explained in the study that the majority of students may have better health than people in older demographics, which means that health insurance might not be their highest priority. However, at the same time “they know they need it. They just have not been able to afford it. This is not about invincibility; it is about affordability.”
