The Higher Education Health Insurance Trap: How Underinsurance Fuels Health Inequity and Educational Inaccessibility

Purpose Higher education institutions are increasingly committed to recruiting more diverse students. As these efforts succeed, institutions face the parallel challenge of meeting an evolving student body's broader and more complex healthcare needs. This article highlights how student health insurance is a critical need that may be unmet by institutions traditionally designed for young, healthy, able-bodied students. Graduate and professional students are particularly vulnerable to a "health insurance trap"; they may discover, only after enrollment, that their plan does not cover essential care, they can no longer work full-time to gain commercial insurance, they have aged out or do not have access to their parent's insurance, and they cannot afford care. This creates significant educational and financial risks that disproportionately affect students already marginalized in healthcare systems. We explore how this "higher education insurance trap" perpetuates health inequities and educational barriers. To address these challenges, we present institutional, policy, and research-based strategies to improve transparency, promote accountability, and expand access to comprehensive student coverage.