There is a lot of talk about keeping costs low for students.

Tuition is high. Books are expensive.

But too often people overlook a cost that takes a major toll on a significant number of students – health care.

Central Michigan University should redouble its efforts toward providing an affordable health care plan for students, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Offering affordable health care should become a priority.

For uninsured students, tuition and rent take priority. Those bills already total into tens of thousands of dollars per year – and for freshmen, who now pay $324 per credit hour, that figure is only going to increase. Never mind the occasional need to eat.

Students’ large bills, coupled with class commitments, preclude them from having enough funding to purchase medical insurance.

The university does offer a health care package, but its current price tag is too high for anyone but the most affluent students. University insurance costs $1,156 annually.

To the university’s credit, the package is a tad less expensive than that at Western Michigan University, which charges students $1,384 annually. And CMU’s plan is far cheaper than that of the University of Michigan, which charges students an annual bill of $2,350.

The problem, however, is that the cost still is unreasonably high for most students.

CMU’s plan is competitive, given the pricing at other Michigan universities. But this is not enough. The university should strive toward having a plan that is accessible to students, not simply because it is an option but because it is an affordable option.

Students are a special case because of the bills they already incur through an education that itself prevents them from immediately earning money. They have limited financial resources. And they are unable to increase significantly their funds because they have limited time.

If the university is going to take seriously offering education to all, then it has to give special attention to students whose bills force them to choose between purchasing books or medicine.

Of course, lowering the price tag is not an easy task. The university again would have to reshuffle its priorities. We hope President Barack Obama’s administration improves access to medical insurance – and it can start by subsidizing university plans. An explicit intent to lower medical costs for students also may make CMU more appealing for state appropriations.

For now, however, aiming to keep tuition low cannot do the trick alone. The university must specifically assist those who face disproportionately high college costs simply because they are unlucky enough to be ill.

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