Awareness of Health Care Insurance

in College Students

Nayelli Acosta, Anjelica Caldwell, Christina Padilla

Justin Farello, Sanjay Yangalasetty
Introduction - What is Health Insurance?
Health insurance is a type of insurance that pays a certain percentage of your medical
costs.

- Every month you pay a “Premium” for coverage, which is similar to a membership.
● This can cover vaccines and other “preventative care”
- If you get a medical bill (hospital/pharmacy) you must pay a “Deductible” (e.g.
$1000), which is the amount you pay out of pocket before your insurance pays any
medical expenses.
- After you exceed your deductible ($1000) your insurance will begin paying a part of
your medical expenses but you still have to pay the rest of the fees out of pocket.
- Some examples include a “Copayment”, which s a flat fee you must pay for medication or
medical services.
- Other times, your medical insurance might ask for a “Co-insurance” instead in which
you pay a certain percentage of your medical costs.
- Your plan might have an “out of pocket maximum” in which if you reach this monetary
value, then the insurance begins to pay ALL off the medical costs you rack up.
New Mexico Health Issues
● Lots of people who cross the border who can’t get insurance or they make above
the poverty line yet are not eligible for Medicaid.
- Doctors have to use a $3-$5 co-pay list to prescribe to patients, who can’t even
afford the medication after that
- We have pharmacy discount cards, which reduce medication prices but many don’t
know about it

How this insurance issue is being tackled currently:

● 340B Drug Discount Program Is a US federal government program created in 1992

that requires drug manufacturers to provide outpatient drugs to eligible health care
organizations and covered entities at significantly reduced prices.
- The discounted drugs are provided to private or public nonprofit organizations whose
intent is to serve low income patients in rural areas who are not eligible Medicare or
Medicaid.
New Mexico & Health Insurance
New Mexico & Health Insurance
According to New Mexico’s Indicator-Based Information System,
the rate of uninsured people (0-64) in 2015 is 13.1% which is
2.2% higher than that of the United States the same year.

The amount of uninsured people in NM has been on a relatively

slow decline since 2007, but is still higher than the amount
of uninsured people in the United States.
Our thesis
Students at the University of New Mexico were surveyed to
quantify the prevalence of owning health insurance. This
survey was also used to assess the attitudes surrounding
health insurance including whether or not the students were
aware of the benefits of owning health insurance and the
potential reasons why one would NOT own health insurance.
Methodology
How we conducted this study
Research Question: Are students aware of health insurance and
the impact of not having health insurance?

To obtain our data for this study, we went out around campus
and asked random students if they would be interested in
filling out our survey. We explained to them that their
answers would be used to analyze health insurance statistics
among college students at the University of New Mexico. Each
group member surveyed 6 random students.
Questions we asked the subjects
1. What age group do you belong in?
a. 18-21
b. 22-26
c. 26-35
d. 35+

1. Do you have health insurance?

a. Yes (See question 3-6)
b. No (See question 5-7)
Questions we asked the subjects
3. Who is your insurance provider?
(Fill in the blank response)

4. Are you under your parent’s insurance or is this your own

insurance?
a. Parent’s
b. My own
Questions we asked the subjects
5. What is the biggest reason you think people should get
health insurance?
a. To protect from rising cost of healthcare
b. For better healthcare
c. Expecting future health problems
d. Other. Please explain
Questions we asked the subjects
6. What is the biggest reason you think people do not have
health insurance?
a. Do not feel the need
b. Poor service provided
c. Too expensive
d. Other. Please explain

7. Why do you not have health insurance? Please explain

The Data
conclusion
Concluding statement
If we were given more time on this project we would ask the
people we surveyed that said they did not have insurance if
they knew about the options that the SHAC offers at UNM.
Since our data showed that there were more students with
healthcare than not, asking them why they think it is
important to have health insurance, would be a valid question
since we started this project on the idea that there may be a
shortage on campus. Another way to take this research project
would be to go to a different area of the state off campus to
see if we would yield the same results that we did from
campus.
Thank you