“There’s no free lunch.”

-Proverb

University Health Center director Sacared Bodison is proposing to the University Senate an additional condition of enrollment for all university undergraduates – mandatory health care. Of course, with mandatory health care comes mandatory fees, and hefty ones at that. Currently, students are eligible for health care under UnitedHealthcare at a price of $1,582 per year. It’s simply mind-boggling to be pushing a plan that could potentially add thousands of dollars to the cost of a college education.

A few arguments have been made by supporters of the plan as to why this actually would benefit students monetarily. Increased participation in health care programs due to a mandatory status would lower individual costs – a sort of bulk discount. Who is this fooling? This is a classic buy-more-to-save-more argument espoused by infomercials and shady salesmen. Essentially, the students who were previously on the plan would save a few dollars, but everyone else would be forced to pay the additional fee.

But wait – Bodison has suggested that these fees would be covered by financial aid. Color The Diamondback skeptical, but the mere suggestion that thousands of dollars for every student would be available sounds like a pipe dream. And even if there were money, why isn’t it being used to ameliorate tuition costs?

The proposal does consider that students who already have health insurance may be eligible to get a waiver. But this is simply unfair. Students should not be required to spend time obtaining a waiver to protect themselves from a massive bill on something they don’t want. Frankly, the real winner here would be the lucky company who won the contract to provide health insurance. They would be stumbling into a veritable pot of gold at the expense of students.

Without a doubt, the cost of adequate health care is one of society’s biggest dilemmas. But it is neither the place of health care companies nor the university to tell students how much they need to spend on it. For the love of sanity, the University Senate cannot even consider such a proposal.

Our view: The plan to require all undergraduate students to be covered by health insurance would likely be an enormous financial burden.