Like most college students, Eric Kamler is young and healthy. He suffers from the occasional cold, but by and large, hes rarely had to use the University Health Center.

But the University of Nebraska-Lincoln student body president likes to know its there and that he can count on it. Thats why hes watching closely a plan to privatize health center operations.

I think the biggest concern that students have that weve heard at student senate and in our offices is maintaining the same quality of health care and services, he said.

At his Sept. 11 state of the university address, UNL Chancellor Harvey Perlman announced plans to hire a private health care provider to build and operate a new health center. To ensure participation from various stakeholders, the university has created an advisory board that will review the bids and make a recommendation to Perlman.

That board is made up of university staff, faculty and students, including James Guest, director of the University Health Center. Since Sept. 11, Guest has spent much of his spare time researching the successes and failures of other universities at privatization.

He has looked at schools like the University of Northern Colorado, which ended its contract with a large hospital in 2006 after its privatized health center failed to generate enough profits, and Radford University in Virginia, which successfully outsourced its health center to a large healthcare provider after an initial contract with another provider collapsed in 2001.

Its a mixed bag, Guest said.

With virtually flat state funding for the past five years, UNL is looking to take advantage of scale in purchasing and improve regulation compliance by connecting the health center to a larger health care organization. Perlman has said privatization also could reduce the cost of medical care to students and allow the university to avoid increasing student fees to pay to replace the 1957-built health center.

Chris Jackson, vice chancellor for business and finance at UNL, said a failed 2009 student referendum that would have increased student fees to pay for a new health center also prompted the university to begin considering privatization.

Costs, as we are very aware, continue to rise, she said. We are continually looking at ways we might more expeditiously provide services to our students.

See the rest here:

University health privatization a 'mixed bag'