Editor’s note: This piece has been updated to clarify that The Daily Princetonian had not reached out to the University for comment prior to publication. The ‘Prince’ regrets this omission.
As Noah Luch ’24 neared the end of his time at Princeton, he knew he “wanted to make sure [he] did something that was really lasting and impactful.” As the chair of the Undergraduate Student Government (USG) Mental Health Committee at the time, he thought back to an issue that had been bugging him since he started: mental health copays.
On July 12, University Health Services (UHS) announced several changes to coverage through the Student Health Plan (SHP). These include a reduction in the copay for mental health visits with providers in the Exclusive Provider Network (EPN) from $20 to $10, as well as complete coverage of the cost of EPN initial therapist consultations.
These changes to mental health coverage come after several years of student advocacy, particularly from members of the USG Mental Health Committee, including Luch.
“When I came to Princeton, I was always really interested in mental health advocacy,” Luch said in an interview with The Daily Princetonian. “I was looking for points of concern from the Princeton population, and the biggest thing that I heard was the issue of copays.”
According to Luch, after copays were highlighted as an issue of particular concern around December 2023, a meeting was arranged between the Mental Health Committee, Student Health Advisory Committee, Priorities Committee, and Student Health Plan Advisory Committee. In this meeting, the topic of lowering or eliminating copays was proposed.
“I mentioned that a lot of students think that the $20 copay is kind of excessive, hard to pay, and, for undergrads, it involves parental involvement. A lot of students skip out on therapy because they know their parents have to be involved because they see a charge on their credit card,” Luch said.
In addition to lowering copays, covering the cost of initial consultations was another priority. “Especially in the Princeton area, therapists are very, very booked, so it’s actually extraordinarily hard to find a therapist that’ll take you,” Luch said.
Luch initially suggested raising the overall price of the Student Health Plan in order to cover the cost of copays. The Student Health Plan Committee, however, was not receptive to this idea.
“The main worry was if you raise premiums too much, students who are paying that premium are going to just go to private insurance instead of the school’s insurance, so you would lose money at the end of the day,” Luch said.
USG also met with the Graduate Student Government (GSG), and, according to now-Mental Health Committee Chair Meera Kochhar ’25, GSG had already independently identified similar concerns.
“It was very interesting to see that both USG and GSG brought this up as an issue at that same meeting without prior discussion,” Kochhar told the ‘Prince.’
Collaboration between USG and GSG was a significant part of the initiative.
“It’s really refreshing to see that [undergraduate and graduate students] can collaborate, as this collaboration is really effective in actually getting things done,” Kochhar said. “We can amplify our voices together, and it feels a lot stronger going to administration [when] both undergrads and grad students are united.”
“We found that a lot of our peer institutions have more comprehensive coverage for mental healthcare. Some of our peer institutions, for example, cover the first 52 visits with no copay,” GSG Vice President Christopher Catalano told the ‘Prince’ in August.
USG and GSG then prepared a 28-page memo which would be presented to the University administration in April 2024. The memo included student testimonials, financing options, and other relevant data. According to the student memo, the SHP at the time was operating at a ten million dollar deficit.
Student testimonials were collected from both undergraduate and graduate students.
“We ran two focus groups, did individual interviews, and also put out an anonymous form in case somebody wanted to say something very confidential,” Kochhar said. “Our approach was seeing how the issue would come up organically in focus groups, and that way we could also collect more data about other things that [we] want to work on.”
Financing options included in the memo outlined how much it would cost the University to adjust the price of copays as well as provide various numbers of free visits.
“Some people might not be willing to fully commit to the idea of therapy, but if you make a few visits free at the beginning, you’re a lot more motivated to continue it, rather than being indecisive about starting it in the first place,” Kochhar explained.
This memo was shared with Vice President for Campus Life W. Rochelle Calhoun, and Provost Jennifer Rexford, following their December meeting. Rexford initially responded by declining another meeting with the students, in emails reviewed by the ‘Prince.’ Yet, after the students pushed back, they were ultimately able to schedule another meeting with Calhoun present.
The ‘Prince’ did not reach out to the University for comment prior to publication.
According to Kochhar, communication with administration following the meeting concerning the memo — where adminstrators noted they were interested in reducing copays — was limited. In July, however, changes to copay pricing were included among the Student Health Plan (SHP) 2024–25 updates to benefits.
“We got no communication, and then, randomly in the summertime when the Student Health Plan information for the coming school year came out, we saw that copays were reduced to $10. Since then, we haven’t been in contact with them,” Kochhar said.
Kochhar believes that the impacts of this change on the student body will be far-reaching. “It’s reducing the mental burden that students have about finances, and allows them to be more present as a student and just as a person on this campus,” she said. “I also think that it makes students more willing to start therapeutic services if they feel that’s what they need, because the cost of entry is a lot lower now. There’s a greater chance of parents being on board because the cost is less.”
“Reducing [copays] by half is an extraordinary load taken off of these students with chronic long-term mental health issues,” Luch noted separately.
However, he hopes that copays will eventually be eliminated entirely, making mental health care even more accessible.
“Our goal from the beginning was to eliminate copays entirely, and to some extent, that’s still my hope. This is just a stepping stone to get the larger goal of eliminating them,” Luch concluded.
Correction: This piece has been updated to clarify the timeline of the student’s meeting with University administrators, and a quote was also removed from the piece that claimed that University officials made an alternative offer to the student’s reduced copay proposal.
Ava Fonss is a staff News writer for the ‘Prince.’
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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