According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, college health insurance plans rank among the worst in the nation. Notorious for low benefit ceilings, some as low as $2,500, and limited areas of coverage, student health insurance plans have become a factor in the decision of where to attend college.

Katrin Wesner, Director of the Abrons Student Health Center, says-lucky for us-the generalization that all college health plans are awful does not represent us well.

Last year the student health insurance plan was voluntary and had a $30,000 benefit ceiling.

Wesner said that last year when a parent would ask if it was a smart decision to take their student off the parent’s plan and purchase the school’s plan instead, she could not ethically say yes.

Now, she can.

UNCW, together with the rest of the UNC system schools, is now part of a much larger risk pool. The larger the risk pool, the lower the cost of coverage. Last year the risk pool was 200 students and insurance cost more than $1,400 a year. This year the risk pool is 70,000 students. UNCW’s health insurance plan now has a benefit ceiling of $1 million at a cost of $673 per student a year.

Whereas last year’s voluntary plan did not cover preventative services, this year’s plan includes $500 of coverage for wellness services like physicals and routine OB-GYN exams. Wesner described last year’s plan as “sickness and accident” insurance. This year’s plan is comprehensive, she said.

There is even an argument that UNC student health insurance in some ways surpasses other insurance plans. The co-pay for a visit to an urgent care facility for students on the colleges’ plan is $10, compared to $75 for North Carolina State employees, according to Wesner. The UNC plan is “better than many,” she said, although some other college plans do offer unlimited coverage.

According to Wesner, health care reform, a few major pieces of which are already in effect, will mean an improvement in college health care plans nationwide. The minimums of coverage will go up and costs will go down, at least that is the idea.