A long-awaited health insurance plan for DePaul students will be available in fall 2024. Eugene Zdziarski, vice president for Student Affairs, shared an update on the student health insurance plan in a university-wide email sent Tuesday, Oct. 24.

This plan comes more than five years after students started advocating for university-sponsored coverage. In January 2023, university leadership’s decision to delay the projected rollout of a student health insurance plan for the 2023-24 academic year caused student pushback.

In spring 2022, DePaul formed a task force of students, faculty and staff who provided recommendations for selecting a student health plan. This task force later resulted in the creation of the Student Health Insurance Advisory Committee in fall 2023, which was tasked with sending a request for proposal to identify a preferred provider. 

For the 2024-25 academic year, all degree-seeking students, both part and full-time, will be required to have active health coverage with the university if they don’t have other coverage. Students can opt-out if they have health insurance through an individual or parent or guardian’s plan, according to Zdziarski’s email. Any students who choose to opt-out will need to provide proof of insurance.

DePaul’s plan is well below the public college average, costing $2,400 per year for three-quarters of coverage, or $800 per quarter and $1,200 per semester. 

According to a 2022 survey conducted by Hodgkins Beckley & Lyon, a health care management and benefit consulting firm specializing in higher education, the average annual cost for a student health insurance plan at public colleges is $2,712 and $3,540 for private universities. 

Other higher education institutions in the Chicago area have similar pricing for coverage. However, because of DePaul’s quarter system, yearly costs average slightly higher than some Illinois schools.

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) charges $784 a semester for undergraduate students and $1,008 for graduate students. At UIUC, the student health insurance fee is assessed each semester and pricing is subject to change depending on enrollment. Like DePaul, the University of Illinois Chicago charges a set fee of $697 for the fall and spring semesters and $461 for the summer. 

While the exact plan was not mentioned in the university email, the announcement claims the coverage is comparably priced to other premium insurance plans on the market. Even though the payments will be made quarterly, except for those in the law school, students will receive coverage for all 12 months of the year, regardless of enrollment in the summer and December sessions. 

All degree-seeking students will be automatically enrolled in the health insurance plan. For those seeking to opt out of coverage, the charges will be removed from their quarterly tuition bill after active insurance documentation is approved. 

More information about rates, plan benefits, coverage and billing will be relayed in the coming months, according to Zdziarski’s email.