The cost of Northwestern’s student health insurance plan will rise 13 percent next year, the university said Tuesday. The annual deductible will decrease to one-quarter of the current amount.
Students who use the plan, which is offered by Aetna Student Health, during the 2008-09 school year will pay $2,360, said Dave Kuzel, an insurance representative for the university, in an e-mail to students. This year’s plan costs $2,088. The annual deductible — the amount deducted from what an insurance company pays for a student’s medical costs — will decrease to $250 from $1,000 last year.
As of November, 5,565 students — 1,184 of them undergraduate students — used the plan , said Christopher Johnson, director of risk management, although a number have dropped out of the plan since then.
“We have had the insurance plan for four years, and this is the fourth different plan,” Johnson said.
The inconsistency of Northwestern’s insurance plans has made it difficult for the health provider to determine prices for coverage, Johnson said. Because of this Johnson said the university hopes to keep the plan the same for the next couple years.
The change was in response to requests from graduate students. Around 80 percent of the students who use the plan are from Northwestern’s graduate or professional schools, Johnson said.
After risk management met with the graduate student association as well as representatives of the law school and Kellogg, a committee was set up to address the graduate student’s concerns. These concerns included the need to change the high deductibles and to add non-deductible services.
The plan then received final approval from the university’s board of trustees.