In this era of rapidly changing patterns of health care financing and delivery, meeting the special needs of foreign students and their accompanying spouses and children is a crucial area to be addressed in order to reduce financial risk for the student and institution. Many foreign students have little understanding of the privately based U.S. health care system and its related direct costs to the individual. Foreign students and their families arrive with different sets of beliefs, customs, and expectations about health care. They present different patterns of illness and disease from those of domestic students, and differ in their utilization of health care systems. Foreign students confront a health care system in the United States that is in a period of rapid reorganization and offers an increasingly confusing array of provider organizations.
Costs continue to be burdensome.
It is the responsibility of every educational institution enrolling foreign students or scholars to ensure that health care that is culturally appropriate, accessible, and affordable is available to these students and their accompanying dependents. To meet this responsibility requires the formation of a partnership among students, their sponsors, foreign student advisers, and college or community health providers.