Students who waive the optional fees for Ohio University services could save more than $1,000, but using those services later on without insurance can be costly.
OU automatically charges students for legal services, health insurance and the wellbeing plan when they enroll each semester. As online tuition payment options become more popular, the number of students waiving those fees has gone up.
“We offer the service and if you need us and you pay the fee, it’s only that — you don’t have to pay any attorney’s fees at all," Pat McGee, managing attorney for the Center for Student Legal Services, said.
However, McGee said OU's online tuition payment process makes it easier for students to waive the fee. If students ever end up needing legal representation, they would have to pay the full attorney's fee. The number of students covered by the Center for Student Legal Services has decreased from a high of about 15,000 in 2009 to about 10,000 this year.
The number of students who waived the legal service fee this year was 11,712, which is more than half of all eligible students.
“I waive all (fees) except the legal services fee because I’m a pretty good kid, but just in case," Lindsey Lemons, a senior studying visual communication and commercial photography, said. "My family has health insurance so I don’t need the health options (from OU).”
Undergraduate, graduate and medical students across all of OU's campuses are subject to legal services fees if they are enrolled in any amount of credit hours. Those students are subject to health insurance and wellbeing plan fees if they are enrolled in five or more credit hours, Kim Trout, associate bursar, said in an email.
Trout said 8,825 of 12,335 students waived the wellbeing plan fee this year, meaning 3,510 students have insurance through OU for the mental health services at Hudson Health Center. OU has 17,805 students that waived the university’s health insurance fee, leaving 1,935 domestic students with health insurance. International students are assessed for student health insurance but do not have the ability to waive it themselves.
“Waiving the Student Health Insurance requires the student to have an alternate health insurance policy in order to complete the waiver,” Anna Casteel, student health insurance administrator, said in an email. “Pricing for medical treatment without insurance is very expensive."
Casteel said without insurance a Campus Care visit can cost anywhere between $64 to $222, not including the cost for any testing, laboratory services, radiology or additional supplies.
Because the Affordable Care Act requires all U.S. citizens to have health insurance, the law offers uninsured citizens the option to purchase a health care policy through the state and choose a policy that best suits their medical needs, Casteel said in an email.
“Students that complete the online waiver to remove the charge for the Student Health Insurance are notifying the University that they already have an active health insurance policy through their parents, or have a private policy purchased through the Open Exchange on Healthcare.gov," she said in an email.
The university offers a one-year commercial policy provided by UnitedHealthcare Student Resources. Each year, the policy is modified to satisfy the mandates of the Affordable Care Act and the State of Ohio. If there are multiple options to policy changes, the options are presented to Student Senate and voted upon.
“The decision of the Student Senate is the guiding factor when making significant policy changes,” Casteel said in an email. “The policy is for the students, and therefore, the students make the determinations when applicable.”
