The other day I got an annoying e-mail from the Graduate's Student Society (GSS). The GSS is essentially the student political body at UVic that looks out for the grad student's interests.... apparently. The subject was about a referendum on our extended healthcare coverage plan going up in costs.
Before I continue, I'd like to state that student politics at UVic is a joke in my opinion. I used to be a member of the University of Victoria's Student Society (UVSS) as it is required for all undergraduates. These are the people that organize protests demanding for various things. It is an organizing that uses
clever slogans like "No Blood For Oil", which completely oversimplifies world affairs. These are the people that Bush is an illegitimate president because he didn't win the popular vote, yet the UVSS election turnout is less than 10%, and somehow they say they have a mandate. Heck, our current government didn't win the popular vote either. In my opinion, a lot of them are borderline communists that are out of touch from reality. This is the same organization that's all about empowering students and using their skills and abilities, but decided to outsource their website to a company that charged them $30,000 for a mediocre website. This is the organization who's policies forced Tim Horton's off of the campus because of high union labour costs. Now there's nowhere decent to eat on campus after 4pm, when you mess with Tim Horton's, you mess with me! In either case, I'm very cynical about any sort of student society.
Back to the program, so the GSS e-mail I got read:
Hello Grads,
The GSS has to send the Extended Health Plan to referendum this year, mostly due to its popularity. It's extremely important that grad students participate in the referendum as we need to achieve quorum for the results to be valid, and we need to know which, if any, extended health services
are most important to grad students.
[...]
WHY ARE COSTS GOING UP?
The cost of extended health insurance is going up due to a number of factors:
-more students are using their benefits, especially paramedical services.
For example, claims for massage therapy grew by 1000% (one thousand per
cent) over last year. Overall, use of paramedical services quadrupled over
last year.
[...]
WHAT WILL THE BALLOT SAY?
There will be two ballots. You can choose one answer on each ballot.
BALLOT 1
Do you support maintaining the GSS health plan with an increase in fees?
[ ] YES, I want to maintain the GSS health plan with an increase of fees.
[ ] NO, I want to cancel the GSS health plan.
BALLOT 2
If the referendum decides to continue the health plan, which option for
coverage would you prefer:
[ ] PLAN A: an increase from $12.50 per month to $14.58 per month (from
$150 to $175 per year) with a reduction of the paramedical coverage to
$250 (from $500) AND a $10 deductible for each paramedical visit.
[ ] PLAN B: an increase from $12.50 per month to $15 per month
(from $150to $180 per year) with a reduction of the paramedical coverage
to $250 (from $500) AND a cap on oral contraceptives coverage at
$120/benefit year.
[ ] PLAN C: maintain current coverage with an increase from $12.50 to
$17.92 per month (from $150 to $215 per year).
Anyways, I'm mad that they're asking to raise the premiums again because people are milking the system. 1000% increase in massage therapy?!?! Come on!!! Hmmm.... I had a stressful exam, time to get a free massage then. Paramedical service claims quadrupled?! I looked into what this was, and it's things like chiropracter, speech therapist, neurologist, etc. Capping oral contraceptives coverage, our plan covers contraceptives?!? Who's claiming $500+ a year on contraceptives? You must be getting a lot of action!
I think offloading the cost of other people's abuse of the system to people like me that don't even use any of the services absolutely sucks. They offer all these great paramedical services, but the one thing I may need is an optometrist, and it's NOT COVERED. Student fees are high enough as they are. Last term, student fees accounted for 20% of the bill I got from UVic.
The system pretty much rewards those who abuse it, and penalizes people who actually stay healthy, and use it sparingly.
I always thought, hmmm, the GSS, perhaps they'll be more level headed, and people will be more responsible because we're all grad students. Clearly this isn't the case. I have a friend who's perfectly healthy, but goes for massages three times a term just because he can. Bah!
Can anyone guess how I'm voting? Hehe.
