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Deteriorating student medical coverage?

Posted on Sep 02, 2008 in Opinion

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Rising health-care costs have become one of the most important issues of our time. This recently hit home for us as students. Due to a policy change effective Aug. 15, student health coverage decreased while rates increased, inflating our medical bills dramatically. My family has now been asked to pay thousands of dollars more than what we were told earlier this month for my wife’s labor and delivery tab. Our pregnancy is six months along and to receive the news at this time is quite shocking – especially since it is now too late to change health-care plans.

The changes include a new deductible, 10% liability for required procedures including hospitalization, and rate increases that cost our family thousands more. In the final yearly tally we will likely exceed 50% of our before-tax income in health-care bills, and that is only for my dependents, all thankfully healthy and undergoing routine care. Medical coverage now costs more than we can spend on housing, food and all other expenses combined. It seems foolish to accept this as inevitable, and I am seeking steps our family can take to get relief from this burden. The situation is deteriorating faster than I believe most realize.

The students I have spoken with were all unaware of these important changes to their coverage, with the exception of the added deductible. I began to think it unscrupulous that we were not at least warned of these major changes on the horizon when we needed to make this critical decision, before the deadline for us to choose another plan. Instead of at least 30 days it appears that no notification was sent out to students. We only found out as an aside after my wife made several persistent phone calls about a related issue.

After receiving inconsistent information, we were finally informed about these substantial alterations to the plan, including a reduction in coverage from 100% to 90%. Part of the confusion may have resulted from these coverage decreases applying only to students, not employees. Sadly the news was confirmed by viewing the new online brochure.
 
Until lately, I have largely been satisfied with the services provided and accepted the cost for them. Yet this summer I was wondering when our bill would arrive and tried contacting the insurance department at student health. After days of unreturned phone and e-mail messages I walked to the center and met someone who I hoped could help me. She explained that she didn’t get my messages and informed me that I should expect a bill on the first of the month. It has now been over three weeks, and I have not received the bill. 

She stated that we would remain covered (retroactively) even if it was not processed. As reassuring as a verbal promise may sound, I anticipate that it is not legally binding, and my family would be the ones uninsured. Now her voice mailbox has remained full and inaccessible. I have tried asking others in the office to relay information to her but to no avail. It might be helpful to have more available staff dedicated to sorting out insurance questions, vaccinations, etc. during this critical time for arriving students. Major decisions are being made and the students (and dependents) need someone we can count on.
 
These additional medical expenses so acutely affecting us are due to massive plan restructuring. The changes were targeted at students, a more financially vulnerable portion of our community, and most apparently still do not know about them. Overall, the system appears insensitive and unreliable. I understand that the costs for pregnancy and delivery represent a significant portion of every major health care plan, and that all costs are currently rising. Equitably passing them on is logical. I essentially question the manner in which this has been carried out. We already face a significant financial challenge in the coming months, much of which we could not foresee. I remain especially grateful we are all healthy thus far, but shudder to think how much we could owe if that were to change.

I suspect it might be unsettling to learn some of these facts. This could be a small step toward viable solutions. In essence I have presented our situation as one of victims. But who is victimizing us? Faceless bureaucracy? Why such unprecedented cost increases at this junction? Where can we find reasonable limits for health-care inflation? I am petitioning that it has far exceeded our ability to compensate, that the ballooning costs are unsustainable. These increases hurt far beyond expectation, and now I feel little recourse is available for us. Hopefully it is not too late to avert this looming crisis for all of us.

Email: chemist@uab.edu