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Is UCSHIP Failing its Students? An Introspective Look Into the Healthcare Model Followed by the University of California

Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: The Regents are committed to delivering high-quality health and counseling services to the students of the University of California in a coordinated, consistent, and integrated fashion, including through the University of California Student Health Insurance Plan (UC SHIP)" (The Regents of the University of California 2019, pol.3401).The promise of high-quality health counseling services to students by the UC Regents represents a promise to ensure that all students can meet their health needs during college as they prepare to embark on their professional careers.However, preparing the next generation of college graduates for the future involves maintaining a healthcare system and model that encourages students to invest in their health while in school.Measuring the effectiveness of the UCSHIP healthcare model in fulfilling that promise across 10 college campuses with different regions and demographics is a difficult task.Nevertheless, one effective way of analyzing that problem is by viewing the trends in participation in the healthcare system by UCSHIP-insured students.For example, has college utilization of preventative healthcare services decreased over time across all UC campuses?More specifically, are UCSHIP-insured students provided with adequate access to Student Health Services (SHS)/Clinical health centers to utilize their UCSHIP benefits on a need-based level?The purpose of this research analysis paper is to open a conversation for future solutions on the current model of UCSHIP to bridge the gap between medical resources for students who are UCSHIP-insured to get the medical treatment they need.By analyzing the trajectory of SHS primary and urgent care visits over a set time compared to emergency (ER) visits; analyzing the ratio of counselor-to-student (C:S) in a given year; and addressing the gaps in appointment wait times for clinical and psychiatric care from 2018-2023 across all measures, is it reasonable to assume that there is a lack of access to health centers available to UC students? Background and Significance:On March 23, 2010, President Barack Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) into law marking the biggest healthcare-related reform in the United States since the Medicare and Medicaid Act of 1965.According to an article written by Jared Ortaliza and Cynthia Cox for The Kaiser Family Foundation titled "The Affordable Care Act 101," the purpose of the PPACA, more commonly known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA), was to expand insurance coverage for all American citizens ensuring both a new affordable health insurance plan for individuals struggling to pay for insurance and protecting the health market for privately insured Americans (Ortaliza and Cox, 2024).Despite the system reform, an estimated 1.5 million Americans fall into the "Medicaid coverage gap" that disqualifies them from both Medicaid and ACA Marketplace subsidies because of their yearly income (Ortaliza and Cox, 2024).This shows that while the ACA has made positive steps to providing more accessible healthcare to people across the nation, there are gaps within Medicaid that don't account for thousands of uninsured people in the country.That being said, providing the states with a new system to create and expand on healthcare has incentivized places like California to create and enforce the ACA over the past 14 years.According to the California Health Exchange, the ACA expanded upon Medi-Cal by mandating the cover of hospitalization & ambulatory services, urgent & Emergency Care (ERC), prescription medication, maternity & breastfeeding support, laboratory services, preventative &
Author: Calva Hernandez, Gustavo
Language: English
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7066720172
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