The Student Insurance Committee is currently in the process of reviewing and evaluating Michigan Tech’s student insurance plan and considering changes to make the plan more accessible to students.
Michigan Tech has been offering student insurance for over ten years with few changes, though decreasing enrolment in the plan, as well as student issues with paying premiums have been a growing problem.
These problems were exacerbated by a high-cost claim made during the 2016-2017 academic year, which may have led to high premiums for students enrolled in the insurance program during the current academic year.
A committee proposal draft made available to The Lode explains that “all non-base expenses after insurance for covered or required procedures must be charged to the university and the covered individual equally.”
The document continues to explain that by solving problems with the university insurance plan the university will be able to attract better students. “We need to create a system that will inherently solve the collective troubles of health insurance. We shouldn’t spend time on the details of healthcare, we should be spending our time learning, researching, and living,” says the document.
The Student Insurance Committee drafted a request for proposals to allow other insurance carriers to offer bids for student plans, changed Tech’s insurance carrier to Consolidated Health Plans, though further changes are being considered.
“I would like to see the student insurance plan just become part of the university insurance plan,” said Josh Marshall, Vice President of GSG. “I would also like to see out of pocket costs split between those on the plan and the university to make it so poor coverage doesn’t just cost the employees more, but the university, too.”
“Changes being assessed by the Student Insurance Committee include changing the proportion of the university’s subsidy, whether or not the university should provide a source of health insurance, whether or not the student insurance should continue to be required, and whether or not to add students to the university employee health insurance plan,” said Ginger Sleeman, Manager of Benefits in Tech’s Human Services Department.
“The committee is comprised of various areas across campus such as Graduate Student Government, Undergraduate Student Government, Human Resources, International Programs and Services, Athletics, Counseling Services, and Graduate School,” said Sleeman.
While the composition of the committee ensures diverse representation, it also means that Committee members have other responsibilities and it can be difficult to get the whole Committee together on an issue.
“Right now, [the biggest difficulty that the Committee has encountered is] that everyone associated with this has many other obligations and can’t focus on just this,” said Marshall. “We’ve also had difficulty getting student feedback for the GSG draft proposal. And this is before trying to get the senate to support the measure, and then pass it by the Board of Trustees.”
Students interested in learning more can visit goo.gl/JERUqf to see the draft, as well as comment on it with thoughts and suggestions.
Those with further questions or concerns not answered by the linked document can contact Josh Marshall at jmarsha@mu.edu.
