Grad insurance might rise

A substantial increase in health insurance costs could mean changes for many graduate student health plans, even as the University offers to cover a majority of the rate hike. \nHealth insurance premiums could increase $584 -- 58 percent -- from the current $1,007 per year, which is wholly covered by IU. Under the new plan, University administrators plan to cover $1,409.80, leaving $181.20 to be paid by students, said Neil Theobald, IU's vice chancellor of budget and administration. \n"There's nothing that's good about it," said Adrianne Wadewitz, a graduate student studying English. "Right now we're only talking about a decrease in benefits and an increase in costs to graduate students."\nStudents and administrators are working through the Student Academic Appointee Health Benefits Committee to lower the potential costs graduate students pay. Some are suggesting students move to a modified plan with lower premiums. Options include raising co-pay prices or decreasing benefits, among others.\nDeciding how to pay for the nearly $200 the University doesn't cover is the subject of confusion and debate from the graduate community. Most affected by the plan are student academic appointees, or SAAs, a group of student-workers -- including graduate students who are associate instructors and student fellows -- who are not considered employees by the University. \nMembers of the Graduate and Professional Student Organization, which represents graduate students, spouted off questions and potential options to help deal with costs at an assembly meeting held Friday afternoon.\nSome suggested the University recognize graduate appointees as official employees -- which administrators said is impossible -- while others recommended the University look for an entirely new health insurance provider.\n"Has the University looked at shopping this bid around?" said Paul Threatt, a law school Doctor of Jurisprudence student, during Friday's meeting.\nDan Rives, associate vice president of human resources, said Friday that any potential insurer would be looking at the same data as IU's current health insurance administrator -- Chickering, a subsidiary of the Aetna network -- meaning major differences in bid prices would be unlikely, and added that the University always negotiates such contracts.\nStill other options include implementing a one-time price fee for graduate students, raising the co-pay amount students pay during medical visits or for prescriptions, cutting the number of services provided or decreasing the maximum amount paid for catastrophic illness or injury, said Julie Swando, who represents graduate students on the SAA Health Benefits Committee. That group, chaired by Theobald, will decide in late April what options to recommend to Interim Provost Michael McRobbie. The plan will then be forwarded to IU President Adam Herbert and, ultimately, the board of trustees. \n"Our goal is to cut things so the most amount of people see the least amount of cuts," Swando said.\nCurrently, the administration subsidizes the entire plan for its 3,505 student academic appointees in Bloomington and 637 appointees at IUPUI. But Theobald said budget constraints, including a $4.5 million cut in state appropriations for the 2005 to 2006 school year, and an additional $2 million cut for the 2006 to 2007 year, make it difficult for the University to cover all of the increases. \n"We have a relatively small pot of money this year," he said. "The whole idea is we do not want to balance the budget on the backs of graduate students -- graduate students are critical to this place." \nTheobald said the money the University is providing to pay for its share of the increases, which amounts to $1.3 million in total, comes out of each campus school or department's budget for filling future faculty positions.\n"The whole emphasis (on planning the budget) was how do we do that without hurting the students?" he said. "To come up with $1.3 million in this budget environment -- that was a major statement on how important graduate students are to this University." \nIncreasing the cost of the insurance while maintaining the amount of coverage comes as graduate students have recently lobbied for dental coverage and increased benefits. IU is the only Big Ten school without dental insurance for its SAAs, according to GPSO documents.\nJohn Scott, chairman of the GPSO's benefits committee, said the importance of dental insurance has not decreased.\n"We want to make sure that if we're here for five to seven years that we have teeth when we leave," he said. \nOthers in the GPSO meeting noted the challenges faced by graduate students who already have small incomes -- ranging from $9,000 to $12,000 or more, depending on department or fellowship money. \n"We're losing instead of gaining anything," said Wadewitz, who is a co-coordinator of the Graduate Employee Organization. The group is separate from the GPSO, which is fighting for unionization of graduates as a way to address many of these issues.\nShe said she is particularly concerned with insurance for dependents -- spouses and children -- because those premiums are paid entirely by the graduate students, with no subsidy from the University.\n"These numbers are already very high," she said. "For it to go up is already disastrous."\nThreatt said dependent insurance is a major issue for graduate students, especially those with a spouse or child.\n"Graduate students have more family concerns than typical undergraduates, and first among those is health insurance," he said. "The University views graduate students as individuals even when they have a family."\nThe increase in price, he said, could force some students to take their spouses or children off the current insurance plan. About 200 dependents are currently on the SAA plan, according to data provided by the GPSO. \nMore than 2,000 international students also share the SAA plan, but pay 100 percent of the insurance premiums. Federal law mandates that international students have insurance while in the United States. \nThey would absorb the entire 58 percent increase, Theobald said. \nIU administrators must balance the international students' desire to keep costs low with graduate students' desire to maintain adequate coverage.