Graduate students dissatisfied with health insurance plan
By: Health Insurance
Submitted: 2009-10-30 11:17:27 | Word Count: 576
Graduate students at Virginia Tech have concerns about the health insurance plan offered by the university.
The main issues students have with the current plan include the cost to cover family members, preventative medicine and prescription coverage according to Laura Freeman, president of the Graduate Student Assembly.
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GM Southwest provides graduate student health insurance. However, it was the only company that agreed to provide health insurance coverage to graduate students at Tech.
“We are stuck with what we got,” Freeman said.
In March 2009, Linsey Barker, former graduate student representative to the Board of Visitors acted as the voice for all graduate students.
Barker said the plans need to allot more money for preventative medicine and prescription co-pays.
Graduate students and their representatives want to become more viable with other universities under the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia.
These SCHEV schools are seen as peer institutions and should be comparable to Tech.
Money is a main concern for students. The current levels of coverage include $50,000, $100,000 and $250,000 levels.
“(Graduate students) need an option of up to $500,000 to $1 million to be competitive with our peers,” Barker said.
Currently, Tech pays 82.5 percent of a student’s coverage plan at the $50,000 level. However, if a student upgrades to a higher coverage level, the amount the university pays does not change.
Also, the university does not pay for spouses and children of graduate students under the plans. By adding families, students have to pay an additional $8,941 to $10,328 annual fee.
In addition, yearly physicals, vaccines and immunizations are not covered under the plans.
“There are no alternatives,” said Rebecca French, graduate student representative to the BOV.
Any full-time graduate student can receive coverage. Tech is currently in its sixth year of a 10-year plan with GM Southwest.
After 10 years, Tech opens bidding up to all insurance companies according to Fred Weaver, director of risk management.
“I don’t see any pros or cons,” Weaver said. “It is out there for students if they choose to use it.”
Because of complaints about graduate health insurance, a review work group was created to assess the problems.
The group created a survey and ranked the concerns of graduate students and changes they would like to see.
According to French, there was enough information for the BOV to look into the issue further.
The data from the survey “gave quite a bit of information to the administration about issues graduate students have with health care, French said.
The Finance and Audit Committee of the BOV created a survey that was sent to graduate students on the Blacksburg campus.
About 1,700 responses were received and the committee is compiling the data.
The results of the surveys will be presented to the BOV at its meeting in November. The meeting is open to the public.
