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Editorial: Smart decisions on STI testing

Foremost among these measures are the changes UHS has made to its policies for testing for sexually transmitted infections. Though testing for HIV has been offered without charge to members of the University community for some time now, other STI tests remained expensive until this year. Testing for several STIs, including gonorrhea and chlamydia, could cost hundreds of dollars for students who did not have health insurance through the University. As of November, however, UHS offers gonorrhea and chlamydia testing for $14 instead of $250 to all students, regardless of their insurance provider. This change will affect the 50–60 percent of undergraduates who do not choose to purchase the University’s health insurance plan

The advantages of this price reduction are twofold. Its primary benefit is that it reduces costs for students who opt out of the student health plan and for their families. It also helps those students who choose to pay out of pocket instead of paying through their parents’ insurance plan. This second benefit is crucial, as many students find themselves uncomfortable allowing their parents to know that they have received testing. Under the new policy, the cost of the tests is low enough that students who feel uncomfortable with charging the cost to a private insurance plan will not have to do so.

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AIDS prevention and awareness are among the most important health causes among students our age, and making HIV tests more widely available is one of the most effective means of accomplishing these goals. More than 20 percent of those infected with HIV do not know they have the disease, and in order to reduce this number, measures to reduce the costs and other disadvantages of the testing process must be enacted. The editorial board commends UHS for its ongoing efforts to make sexual health a priority at Princeton and hopes that other universities and health clinics will be able to follow its example.

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