By Scott Arno, Lincoln Ellis and Jasmine Hill
For nearly two years, UC President Mark Yudof’s office has asked University of California campuses to join a UC-wide Student Health Insurance Plan. This plan would give students from all participating UC schools health care coverage from the same insurance provider, saving money in theory by “buying in bulk.”
For many campuses, last year’s 2010-11 UC-SHIP lowered insurance rates, increased benefits and improved dependent care. This wouldn’t have been the case for UCLA, however.
UCLA’s own SHIP and graduate students’ SHIP provided, for the most part, superior coverage at a lower cost. For this reason, as well as because of concerns over current and future administration of the UC-SHIP, our campus declined to participate.
This year, our undergraduates and graduates are being asked to join again. In the past few weeks, the UC president has offered UCLA a plan very similar to our own. In some circumstances, this plan saves our students money, while in others it runs slightly more than our own SHIP.
Regardless of price, once we decide to join UC-SHIP, our students may find themselves locked into a plan that could rapidly increase in costs ““ without the power to prevent the loss of benefits most important to our campus.
While UC-SHIP may offer us many advantages for this year, we have had almost no time to examine them, since the most recent numbers were given to us last week. This is not enough time to make a clear, informed decision about a matter so critical to the lives of the UCLA student body.
Also concerning to us is the lack of student oversight in the UC-SHIP. Currently, UCLA students, through the Student Health Advisory Committee, have a meaningful voice that affects health insurance policies. For example, students were instrumental in ensuring a surgical benefit for transgendered students; they have also pushed to keep mental health a major priority here.
Perhaps most importantly, trade-offs between costs and coverage limits are vetted by students. The president’s plans to include student opinion are, thus far, incipient and inadequate.
As the true financial benefits of the UC-SHIP won’t be realized for at least another year, we believe that it is best to delay our involvement for now, and reevaluate next year after UC-SHIP establishes a track record by which it can be judged.
For this reason, the Graduate Student Association Forum passed a unanimous resolution calling for UCLA to remain unassociated with UC-SHIP for the 2011-12 academic year.
Students must have the opportunity to review and comment upon a final and public insurance plan with the ability to change features they don’t like, both now and in the future. Anything short of this would be a step backward.
Scott Arno is chair of the Student Health Advisory Committee.
Lincoln Ellis is president of the Graduate Students Association.
Jasmine Hill is president of the Undergraduate Students Association Council.