Follow

• 

  College Students' Health Insurance: A Focus on Foreign-Born Students' Healthcare

  Phuong Le

  This research is to explore the uninsured rates of foreign-born students from the age of 18 to 24, including those who study abroad in the United States from foreign countries, immigrants of the U.S. who are green-card holders, and residents/citizens who were not born in the U.S. It is found that there is no significant difference between Asian foreign-born students and other racial groups of foreign-born students, suggesting that there may not be a big cultural difference in perceiving health insurance among foreign-born students. In general, foreign-born students are 19.34 percentage points more likely to be uninsured. Statistical analysis has shown that there is a significant difference in uninsured rates between U.S-born and foreign-born students. Health insurance for international students is historically not as readily accessible nor has a good value. Thus, despite contributing greatly to the U.S. economy, this group of international students usually struggle when it comes to obtaining information on healthcare and utilizing the insurance plan that they are required to purchase. Due to school mandates, a large portion of foreign-born students who are international students are required to have health insurance in order to attend schools, while foreign-born undergraduate students who are not international students are not required to. In light of such differences in how health insurance is mandated on these different groups of students as well as other cultural factors that are applicable for foreign-born students in general, future research with relevant data would be helpful in identifying any health insurance disparity existing between international students and domestic students.