New healthcare plan considered

Correction: The original version of this article published Nov. 19 contained an error. Under the new health plan, graduate students may have decreased coverage for campus mental health services.

UCLA is considering opting into a University of California-wide health insurance plan for graduate students, a controversial proposal that has some students expressing doubts.

Although it has potential advantages over UCLA’s current Student Health Insurance Plan, the UC plan would lower the lifetime benefits cap from SHIP’s $600,000 to $400,000 and would place a $10,000 cap on pharmaceutical and prescription benefits.

In a town hall meeting Thursday, the UCLA Student Health Advisory Committee recommended against opting into the UC plan. The committee consists of four graduate and four undergraduate members who advocate for students’ health care needs.

Changes to pharmaceutical caps under the UC plan would affect a significant number of students, including at least 36 graduate students who currently exceed $10,000 in pharmaceutical and prescription benefits, said SHAC chair Scott Arno. If the UC plan is adopted these students might not be able to continue their education, he said.

At the meeting, Neil Bajpayee, a graduate student in pharmacology and a member of SHAC, explained other pros and cons of joining the UC plan.

He said advantages would include stabilized costs of insurance, better dependent care, lower co-pays and tripled transgender surgery coverage.

UCLA’s current insurance covers transgender surgery up to $25,000, but under the new plan, benefits for transgender surgery would be extended to $75,000.

Some students, though, said they were concerned the costs of the new plan might outweigh its benefits. Along with a lower benefits cap, UCLA students on the UC plan may have decreased coverage for campus mental health services, which include UCLA Counseling and Psychological Services and Neuropsychiatric Behavioral Mental Health Services, Bajpayee said.

Opting into the consolidated plan would also decrease student input into the university’s health insurance plan. SHAC would be replaced by a few students who would represent all UC graduate students’ health care interests.

UCLA’s insurance is currently one of the least expensive plans in the UC system, and Arno said SHAC is concerned that adopting the UC plan might result in higher premiums for students.

In theory, having a larger risk pool should lower premiums, but whether the UC plan would cost students more or less than SHIP is uncertain, he said.

“We are not going to support a plan that decreases benefits and increases costs,” said Sean Scott, a fourth-year nursing student and the co-chair of SHAC.

The UC-wide insurance plan was originally proposed last year by the UC Office of the President to save the university system $4 to 5 million per year, Arno said. Although the plan was enacted for the first time this year, UCLA chose not to opt into it. Four other UC schools have also yet to join.

The 2011-12 plan is now open for UCLA to opt into, and a similar undergraduate plan is in the works for future years.

Along with about 10 graduate students, representatives from the Arthur Ashe Student Health and Wellness Center attended the SHAC meeting to listen to student concerns.

Dr. Jo Ann Dawson, executive director of the Ashe Center, said the UC plan must be considered carefully before any decision is made.

“Nobody wants the students to lose,” Dawson said.

By early January, Chancellor Gene Block and Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Scott Waugh will have decided whether to join the UC plan. Arno said he does not believe administrators will choose to sign on to the plan in the next academic year.

At the town hall meeting, SHAC also discussed the Ashe Center’s efforts in the past year to reach out to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.

Following complaints to SHAC that Ashe employees were not helpful to LGBT students, the Ashe Center held sensitivity training for its employees. SHAC also pointed out the little-known $25,000 SHIP coverage for transgender surgery.

Fernando Serrano, a married graduate student studying history who attended the town hall meeting, said after the meeting he now has mixed feelings about whether UCLA should join the UC plan.

Serrano said he currently uses SHIP to cover himself and his wife, who is listed as a dependent, and he thinks the current plan is too expensive for dependent care. Serrano said while he might benefit if UCLA joined the UC plan because dependent care costs could decrease, he is not sure whether sacrificing student representation to join the consolidated plan would be a good thing.

“We like how things are run currently,” Serrano said. “We have a committee that speaks for us. We have a voice.”

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