UPDATED: April 13, 2018 at 12:04 a.m.

A week after Syracuse University’s Graduate Student Organization approved the implementation of a new health insurance plan, some graduate student employees are still divided over whether the plan will help them pay medical costs.

GSO’s senate passed the new health insurance plan last Wednesday. The plan will move about 1,300 graduate employees onto a student health plan that will reduce initial premiums by almost $1,000, according to the university. Previously, graduate employees had an option between student and employee health plans. Both of those plans had higher initial premiums than the new plan, according to the university.

Jack Wilson, president of GSO, on Wednesday night confirmed the new plan is being provided by Aetna Life Insurance Company.

Laura Jaffee, a graduate student who has a chronic health condition, said she worries that without a fixed price for her surgeries, she will have to pay more than she can afford for those surgeries.

“I’m worried with the coinsurance option I would be paying 10 percent of over $10,000 for medical costs in this country,” she said. “Paying 10 percent of that, I just can’t get it done. That’s totally infeasible.”

Under the new plan, there will be a transition from a copay to coinsurance for coverage of certain medical costs for graduate students, according to a slideshow presented at last Wednesday’s senate meeting. Wilson said a complete transfer from copay to coinsurance is a “misconception,” since two-thirds of health care costs will be covered by a copay.

Members of the Syracuse Graduate Student Employees United group have said the plan was rushed through an approval process, with little opportunity for student input. Hunter Thompson, a graduate employee who did not vote for the new plan, said he felt there wasn’t enough information presented to all students in regard to the switch.

But Rajesh Kumar, a graduate student who’s an advocate for the new plan, said he thinks there has been opportunities for SU to gauge community input on the switch to Aetna.

“When students don’t have time to ask their questions and express their concerns, that part is very concerning to me,” said Adrianne Traub, a GSO member who’s part of the organization’s graduate employment issues committee. “We didn’t have the details of the plan, (and) we weren’t able to ask questions that were presented in a meaningful fashion.”

Wilson said he has only received one letter against the health care plan since last Wednesday’s meeting.

Of the 34 senators who voted on the health resolution at the  meeting, 24 voted in favor of the bill supporting the health insurance switch.

“If we had not voted for the resolution on that night, it could have caused about 1,300 graduate students to pay $1,000 more,” Kumar said. “This is $1,000 from every pocket.”

Sohrob Aslamy, a graduate student employee, said she was “astonished” that a small room of graduate students were made aware of the plan’s details only hours before making a decision on health care coverage.

Kumar said the GSO followed a “pretty good procedure” for the vote, especially because graduate student representatives have sat on the university’s health insurance committee. He said the administration would not have made any decisions unless the GSO senate agreed to the plan.

CORRECTION: In a previous version of this post, GSO President Jack Wilson was misquoted. Wilson said a complete transfer from copay to coinsurance under the new health plan is a misconception. The Daily Orange regrets this error.

Published on April 11, 2018 at 10:20 pm

Contact Gabe: gkstern@syr.edu | @gabestern326