A policy that would have required all students to hold health insurance is no longer being considered after Government of the Student Body officials voiced concerns.

The hard waiver insurance policy, which was being considered by the university’s Student Health Insurance Committee, would have required all students to either carry private insurance or purchase Iowa State’s insurance plan. The university’s current policy makes coverage voluntary for students.

If implemented, the policy would have forced students to pay $846 a year under university coverage or about $1,000 a year with private coverage.

“Students can barely afford to go to college, let alone pay for insurance,” said Cara Harris, chairwoman of the GSB Student Health Insurance Committee.

The decision was made by the university’s Student Health Insurance Advisory Board Friday. As a result, the committee decided to completely re-evaluate student insurance programs, said Harris, senior in liberal studies.

“It was dropped due to unpopularity, as well as lack of education on the part of the students,” Harris said. “There’s lots of controversy on this issue and lots of holes to be filled in.”

Todd Holcomb, chairman of the university Student Health Insurance Committee, said issues with student health insurance need to be examined before the committee makes a recommendation to the university.

“The ISU community is not clear about what [it] wanted to do with health insurance,” said Holcomb, associate vice president for student affairs. “We got a lot of input from groups on campus and a lot of feedback. But we did not perceive a clear direction that we needed to take.”

Nancy Brooks, ex-officio member of the university committee and associate director of purchasing, said the committee is looking for ways to reduce the impact of the cost increase of student health insurance without hard waivers.

According to Daily staff reports, Iowa State has been contemplating a change in its insurance policy since last year because of increased insurance claims by students. The claims became larger than the school’s policies could cover.

According to a committee newsletter, the University Student Health Insurance Committee considered the hard waiver because it would increase enrollment in the health program by including students who were previously uninsured or underinsured. This would positively impact the risk pool by spreading the risk to everyone, not just students who need immediate care.

The announcement comes on the heels of a Dec. 3 resolution that said the GSB could not support the hard waiver program, and had not yet had enough time to thoroughly explore the issue. The resolution said there were too many unknown aspects of the plan to draw a sensible conclusion.

GSB President Mike Banasiak hailed the board’s decision not to go ahead with the hard waiver policy as a success for defending student concerns.

“I think it was great that they slowed down to take the time to make such an important decision,” Banasiak said.

Harris said she contributes the decision to slow the progress of the vote to GSB interaction with the council.

“In my personal opinion, this is the kind of program that is opposite to what the university should be doing,” Harris said.

“It’s not very fair, and it’s not where the university should be heading.”

Harris said she and the committee would continue searching for options that would offset the growing costs of health insurance, both for the school and the students.

“It’s very much in the infantile stage,” Harris said.

“Right now we’re planning meetings and seeing which way we want to go.”