The UNC-system health insurance is meant to cover all students — except for one particular group that is not allowed to opt in.

Graduate students at UNC who are also employed as teaching assistants, research assistants or fellows are covered by a separate insurance plan and are not allowed to switch to the health insurance plan provided by Pearce & Pearce.

Although many of the benefits of the two plans are similar, there are some premium differences. One example is adding on a child or a spouse to the policy, which is more expensive for the teaching and research assistants and fellows.

Typically, the insurance plan for the teaching assistants is paid for by a grant, said Mary Covington, executive director for Campus Health Services.

“It’s almost an employer relationship and we wanted to give them the benefit of health insurance,” she said.

They have been covered by a separate insurance plan since the early 1990s, Covington said. The two plans will not be streamlined.

Blue Cross Blue Shield remains the providing company for the research assistants, teaching assistants and fellows, she said.

Hill, Chesson and Woody is the administrating body.

Covington said a major difference between the two plans is that the teaching assistant insurance plan mandates that beneficiaries are allowed to pay for their own health insurance for 18 months after leaving their job instead of simply losing all coverage.

This is important in a country where health insurance is traditionally tied to employment, Covington said.

This benefit is not included in the UNC-system health insurance plan. Students lose coverage after graduating.

“Take it or leave it, you don’t choose much about it,” said Pat Phillips, a graduate student and a teaching assistant in the health policy and management department.

Other teaching assistants are just happy they will not have to switch to a new plan and disrupt their care.

“I prefer just being able to maintain the patient-provider relationships I’ve already established,” said Andrea Heckert, a teaching assistant for the department of health behavior and health administration.

Heckert said that at the last university where she served as a teaching assistant, there was a change-over of plans and some delays, which led her to be diagnosed late with a serious illness.

Continuity of care is important, Covington said.

Some students say a hard-waiver plan system-wide is ideal.

“Creating a mandatory requirement establishes a larger risk pool which has the potential to drive down premiums,” said Matt Hasbrouck, president of the Health Policy and Management Masters Student Council, in an e-mail.

“It is an excellent way to keep students up to date on their health and wellness, helping subdue future health care expenditures from untreated issues,” he said.

Impending health reform means this model might be widely adopted in the future, Hasbrouck said.

Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.