New student voice may solve health care cost problems

A student board that approves Portland State’s student health insurance plan has formed, which a student government member says will ensure that there is a student voice in the cost of next year’s insurance plan.

The Student Health Advisory Board was formed because of an across-the-board increase in the cost of the extended insurance plan for PSU students, said Nick Walden Poublon, the board’s organizer and the university affairs director for Associated Students of Portland State University (ASPSU).

The cost of the extended insurance plan rose by as much as $387 per term for the 2007-08 school year. The extended insurance plan can be purchased as an add-on to the basic insurance plan that is charged to students who take 12 or more credits each term.

The basic plan currently costs students $142 per term, and the extended plan can be purchased for an additional cost between $428 per term and $897 per term, depending on a student’s age. Only international students must purchase the extended plan.

The cost of the extended plan is now higher because there were no students on the board last year, Walden Poublon said.

“The board doesn’t form every year,” Walden Poublon said. “It depends on students who want to be involved.”

Walden Poublon said he approached Mary Beth Collins, the interim director of the Center for Student Health and Counseling (SHAC), about re-forming the committee after insurance prices shot up this year.

Because students did not form the board last year, administrators had the only say in the price of student insurance.

“We made sure the board formed this year,” Walden Poublon said. This year, the board is made up of five students and Collins, who acts as a supervisor.

The board, which meets every other Friday, will negotiate the price of next year’s health care plan by hiring independent insurance facilitators to get quotes from a handful of insurance companies, Walden Poublon said. After the facilitators receive quotes from the insurance companies, they present the options to SHAC and the advisory board to choose from.

The process will begin in January and run through spring term, Walden Poublon said.

Overall, Walden Poublon said student involvement in creating changes with university health care is very important.

“Past boards have also negotiated price of health care plan,” he said, adding that boards have even started new health care programs. “They created dental health care.”