Robin Wagner, the Associate Dean of Students for Health Affairs informed
the area Deans of Students that the rates have gone up approximately 11%
this year and reflect the following key changes:
1. We removed the day surgery cap of $5000, which left some students with
large uncovered bills for necessary surgical procedures.
2. We lowered the out-of-network coverage to 50%
3. Non-surgical treatments for sex-reassignment therapy are now covered
4. All medical treatments outside the US will be covered at the in-network
level of care.
The rates for 04-05 are :
Basic Plan:
Student Only: $1,656, or $552 per quarter (3 payments)
Spouse Only: $2,952, or $984 per quarter (3 payments)
Child(ren): $2,952, or $984 per quarter (3 payments)
Advantage Plan:
Student Only: $2,460, or $820 per quarter (3 payments
Advantage Plan:
Hi,
I'm a student representative to SHIRC and have also signed the SOSHI petition. I'd like to answer a couple of questions that are asked here. The meeting minutes are not made public because there are privacy issues, not with respect to letting students have access to the information, but with respect to the relationship between the University and the health insurance provider. Making them public to the student body would might also allow unwanted access from other parties. This doesn't mean that SHIRC can't release more information on what it does. I will raise this issue at the next meeting. Secondly, there is no formal process for selecting srudents to participate on SHIRC. This is something that SHIRC recognizes as a problem and plans to do something about. However, being selected to participate on SHIRC is not difficult. There are not many students who express interest in participating, so if you go to your Dean and do so, you are likely to be contacted. Finally, because there is no formal selection process for student participation on SHIRC, there are also no formal term limits.
Anyone who is monitoring this website and would like to talk further about these issues, please contact me at aih@uchicago.edu.
Thanks
Anne
SHIRC is holding a series of meetings in early March to announce next year's plans. They did not want to realse the information before the meetings but thanks to student protest, they will be. We urge folks to check thier announcement page for updates, read the proposed plan, and *go* with your thoughts and concerns to the meetings. We already know that the plan is expected to rise between 12_15% next year and recall that it went up already 20% this last year. Is this something we can afford?
Please attend the meetings and let your voice be heard!
March 2 at 3 pm
March 4 at noon
March 5 at 5 pm
All meetings will be in the Reynolds Club South Lounge and are open to all students.
It looks like the Student Health Insurance Review Committee is actively looking for new health insurance providers this year. They sent out what is called RFP (request For Proposal). This is good news. But this is nothing you can learn from their website. It would be better if the SHIRC website was updated to reflect what they are doing *now* as well as move to more transparency. Why not post meeting minutes since meetings are closed? How are students picked to be part of the committee? Do student positions withing SHIRC terminate at the end of year?
While you hold town meetings, weekly website updates might be a better way to keep the university informed of what you are doing.