A representative from United Healthcare Student Resources spoke Tuesday at Graduate Student Senate to address concerns about increasing healthcare costs for students.
Graduate students who are not part of GSS came to the meeting spoke out against what they felt was unfair treatment by raising the costs. Many of them were international students, as they are not eligible for other health care options in the U.S., and are constrained to a maximum 20-hour work week by law.
Students were protesting not only the additional 14% increase, but the lack of choices to other options. Last year, health insurance cost increased by 29% as well, International Student Affairs Commissioner Viktoria Marinova said.
The university sets criteria for healthcare programs outside of student insurance, but many graduate students, such as Marinova, asked why the criteria is so hard to meet.
“Right now I’m afraid to get sick,” Lyda Ngin, a first-year graduate student studying public administration, said. “First of all, I have to save enough to pay the $1,450, and then save some money to buy food … and now I have $200 a month to eat, not to hang out with friends anymore, and then you increase another 14%. I can’t get sick, and I don’t want to be in debt.”
Many graduate students also expressed concerns about how a continually increasing cost will affect their families and children. Dale Burns, senior vice president of United Healthcare Student Resources, said the cost is increasing because the student healthcare is being utilized.
“We’re in an environment where the cost of medical care has gone up,” Burns said.
Burns also said his company is required to justify its cost to the state, but students still demanded answers for why the increase was so dramatic when other Ohio schools have not nearly seen such a big increase. Many of the international students reasoned it was not fair for them to leave their home countries where they had better healthcare coverage.
GSS has a committee dedicated to those health care concerns, and during the electoral debate, many candidates said the issue would be one of the first addressed.
Presidential candidates include Kaelyn Ferris, a third-year graduate student and department representative for physics and astronomy, and Uchenna Okwara, a graduate student studying international development.
Vice presidential candidates include Brett Fredericksen, a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate and environment and plant biology department representative, and Amal Shimir, a first-year graduate student studying international development.
Running unopposed for treasurer is Amid Vahedi, a fourth-year Ph.D. student.
“The immediate goal is to figure out how health insurance is going to be alleviated in some way, shape or form,” Ferris said. “I want everyone’s feedback on that. I love the energy that we had, and I want to work with everyone as much as I can to be able to find a solution that works for all of us, as graduate students together.”
As a former lieutenant in the Nigerian Army, Okwara said some of his best qualities as a candidate include being able to work well under pressure, make negotiations and draw the best out of the people he’s leading.
“I’m going to try and make sure the health insurance is taken care of, get more funding for research, for awards and so many things that will make the research life of all graduate students better,” Okwara said. “But to do this, we really need a pool of ideas (and) diversity.”
Fredericksen said he plans to create more effective training for new members as well as continue to facilitate communication with university administrators.
“I do have a track record of pretty clear and consistent wins for graduate students at this university,” Fredericksen said. “Last year when we were witnessing the even higher hike in health insurance premium, I tried to turn that around along with some work with my other colleagues to reduce the student fee cost incurred by graduate students.”
Shimir said her time working in Iraq for humanitarian organizations gave her the ability to mobilize teams to help people and work under harsh conditions with limited resources.
“I would design a very strategic communication plan, externally and internally,” Shimir said.
Vahedi said some of his best qualities as a candidate include knowing how to delegate and being able to see the big picture.
