Just as many other colleges across this nation, Hamline requires its students to have health care in order to attend classes.

After the passing of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act made it a requirement that plans offer coverage for a child until the age of 26, more and more college students are able to stay on their parents’ plan upon coming to college. But, for those who may not have access to health care, Hamline offers health care through Unitedhealthcare Student Resources.

Despite the fact that health care appears to be readily available, there are many complications a student can run into. This begins with the date by which those with health care must waive the Hamline health care fee in Piperline.

Jasmine Lee, a junior and Senior Photographer for The Oracle, is a student who has experienced trouble due to way in which UnitedHealthcare Student Resources processes student information. After a routine doctor’s appointment in Oct., after the waiver deadline, Lee was billed for the appointment and that she did not have health insurance to cover it.

“They called me to say my insurance was termed…and that it wasn’t activated yet. [For] Unitedhealthcare Student Resources you have to call in to do it…I was on the phone for literally an hour,” Lee said.

If a student already has health care insurance, then students must go into Piperline to waive the fee before the deadline of Sept. 22.

“If you already have health insurance through your parents or through the exchange…then you have to go into Piperline and enter that information,” Director of Health Services Jodi Metz said. “If at some point in time you don’t enter that information…then you will automatically be enrolled into the health plan that’s offered by Hamline.”

With this deadline not being until fall, students are believed to be given sufficient time to enter their existing healthcare information.

However, a later fee waiver deadline can lead to complications for anyone using the Hamline healthcare.

“College health plans are different than regular health plans in that they go school year to school year. They start in August and go to August,” Metz said.

Health care plans found else where typically run year to year meaning they begin on Jan. 1 and run a full calendar year.

“Students are enrolled into the insurance policy in August but you don’t have to waive that insurance until September. In the middle of that gap, it’s sometimes difficult…if you need to use your insurance,” Metz said.

Metz went on to explain how, should the waiver be enforced earlier, there could be issues for those with health care not being able to enter their information in time.

“It’s a different group of people who would run into a problem if we changed the waiver deadline,” Metz said. “At Hamline, the office of student accounts works with Unitedhealthcare Student Resources to do that waiver processes, and there are definitely glitches, I think.”

Lee found that the Unitedhealthcare Student Resources response time was very slow and unorganized.

“It’s 2017, it should not take two hours at a front desk to figure out if you have insurance or not,” Lee said.

Both Lee and Metz have run into complications in Hamline’s student health care, yet it seems that this could be the cost for other students to have adequate time to send in their waivers.