Students wrangle over insurance rates

After facing months of protest, the provider of the Penn Student Insurance Plan recently announced a few changes to ease the impact on students' checkbooks, leaving some breathing at least a partial sigh of relief -- and others still crying foul.

On Friday, Penn's insurance carrier announced a new rule that would incorporate prescription costs into the $2,500 cap placed on out-of-pocket medical expenses, which includes many services not offered at Student Health Services. Until Friday, prescription costs did not count toward the cap.

In cases of students with dependents, while no single person will have to cover more than $2,500 in out-of-pocket fees, the group could pay up to $5,000 collectively.

For students with extraordinary expenses and needs not met by the current plan, the Office of the Vice Provost for University Life announced that, starting in April, students with out-of-pocket expenses greater than $1,000 will be able to request aid from a limited pre-existing fund from the VPUL office that is designed as a student emergency support fund.

But some graduate and professional students -- who make up the majority of the plan's subscribers -- are saying that these changes are too little, too late.

Conflict first arose when details of this year's plan were released in July, and many protested a 35 percent increase in premiums for students without dependents to $1,350 annually. Decreased benefits also required students to pay between 30 to 40 percent of prescription drugs, 10 percent of many medical expenses and a $250 deducible on some services.

Graduate Students Together-University of Pennsylvania, a group seeking to unionize the school's graduate students, said that the changes in the health plan are helpful, but don't go far enough in alleviating the impact on a student's budget, especially for those with chronic illness.

GET-UP members, who met last week to address the effects of the insurance plan, stress that such modifications might have been avoided if the students had representation through a union.

"It's a step forward," said Ed Webb, spokesperson for GET-UP, an affiliate of the American Teachers' Association. "But we don't see this as a reason to stop making the argument that things need to change."

"When you have decisions like this, a concession given by the administration, it's entirely down to their goodwill," Webb said. "Whereas if we had a union on campus, then issues such as health care would be a matter for negotiation and we would be able to bind the administration, rather than relying on their goodwill."

But while Webb and his group may complain about the cost of health care, other graduate and professional student organizations on campus said that Friday's change shows the administration's willingness to work with students.

"This indicates to us the University is really listening to students' concerns," Graduate and Professional Student Association Chairman and third-year Law student Christopher Leahy said. "This change never would have happened if it weren't for the University persisting."

Graduate Student Associations Council Chairman Darren Glass agreed.

"Everyone who I've talked to about the changes recognizes that they're great, it's not even contestable," Glass said. "When the administration says they'll help out students who have to spend more than $1,000, that definitely shows the administration cares and is doing what they can to help with this bad situation that was out of their hands."

According to Vice Provost for University Life Valarie Swain-Cade McCoullum, decisions over who will receive aid from the University will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis depending on need. The amount available from the fund varies from year to year, and McCoullum said it is not yet clear exactly how much money will be available to those who request it.

"We will do the best we can to support the most students possible who have the greatest need," she said.

The increased premiums and decreased benefits of this year's plan reflect a national trend in health insurance which has also affected many universities. At Stanford University, where premiums are almost twice as high as those at Penn, graduate students who could not afford the school's coverage were told to seek aid from the state.

For many, the extra costs come as a disappointment after the University announced last spring that nine of 12 graduate schools would pay for the insurance premiums of students on full aid. With the higher costs, the University will still cover the premiums, but with a decreasing benefit package, students will still face higher out-of-pocket costs.

Director of Student Health Services Evelyn Wiener said that despite an apparent cost increase, the University's negotiations with the Chickering Group -- which provides the Penn Student Insurance Plan -- have been ongoing to try and meet students' expressed needs.

"I think the carrier has been incredibly responsible to the concerns that have been identified and the needs of the students," Wiener said.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.