Portland State health insurance restructuring forum Fri.

Students will be able to give feedback and opinions about Portland State’s health insurance at a forum tomorrow as an effort for increased student input on PSU health insurance and rate setting, student government officials say.

This school year, PSU’s extended health insurance increased by more than 50 percent across the board over last year. Nick Walden Poublon, ASPSU university affairs director and organizer of the Student Health Advisory Board, said it is important that students have a voice after the cost of health insurance went up so drastically this year.

Finding out the strengths and weaknesses of the current system is a good way to improve the way health care is handled at PSU–the current system is simply too much money for many students to pay, he said.

“It has a lot to do with price,” Walden Poublon said. “We are looking at a completely different way of doing health insurance.”

The forum will be held Friday from noon to 1 p.m. in room 294 of Smith Memorial Student Union.

Representatives in charge of the PSU Center for Student Health and Counseling (SHAC) and PSU’s current insurance provider, Wells Fargo insurance services, will be present at the forum to answer students’ questions as well as listen to concerns about the current state of the university’s health care system.

Student input will “play a large role” in how the board decides to move forward with plans for next year’s insurance package, Walden Poublon said.

“Student input doesn’t end here, it doesn’t end Feb. 8th at 1 p.m.,” he said. Walden Poublon said a survey on health care and other forums planned to educate students about how the current health care plan works, as well as to present possible new plans to students to gather opinion, are in the works.

The board has already requested quotes from both for-profit and non-profit insurance companies, and finalizations to next year’s health plan will be made in the next few months.

No students were involved when PSU set the health plan for this year because students did not form an advisory board, which has been considered optional, Walden Poublon said. Instead, various directors of SHAC made the decision about student health without any student input, he said.

The forum is designed to give students a voice when it comes to how university healthcare works, said Tamara Kennedy, campaign coordinator for Associated Students of Portland State University.

“I just so want students to attend,” Kennedy said. “It’s so important.”

Kennedy encouraged students to come with any issues they have with the current health care system. The forum does not have specific criteria, she said, but it is important to hear from as many different students as possible in order to understand student concern to the fullest.

Kennedy said that around six students have agreed to tell their stories at the forum, after previously coming to Walden Poublon with concerns about insurance.