[Vision2020] UI Student Health Insurance Question

Mon Sep 7 16:25:49 PDT 2009

Saundra,

I do not like to post on the V because people steal your identity, post using your name, and it gets hostile and mean in here. I think this ruins the reputation of good people, and turns nice people into rude people. Moscow is a wonderful town, with wonderful people. I think that the conversations on the V reflect a negative and inaccurate image of the Palouse Community and what the people are really like. However, I am making an exception here because Health Care is an important issue to me. 

As I understood the case to be, the reason faculty, staff, and students have to pay such high premiums with high deductibles for insurance is because it has a $1 million in lifetime coverage and $500,000 per annual period.  BSU, LCSC, ISU, NIC, College of Idaho, NNU, don’t have this. BSU, for example is only $100,000. A typical PPO Blue Cross plan only has about $250,000. 

This level of coverage for UI students and faculty is excessive and not necessary for two reasons. First, anyone who endures $1 million in medical damage and is not a millionaire would simply declare bankruptcy. Students and teachers usually are not millionaires, so have no assets worth $1 million to protect from medical debt collects, except maybe a house which would be protected in bankruptcy. And second, anyone who endured $1 million in medical damages probably would not be at fault and have other avenues to pay for such expenses. 

My understanding is that the $1 million coverage is to cover the UI from costly civil suits and Gritman from having to cover the costs of underinsured and uninsured college students. 

Other colleges and universities around the state have a general population of non-students to absorb financial losses and several hospitals to spread the costs out. Moscow is mostly students and poorly paid teachers and service workers who cannot make up for indigent medical care, and has only one hospital to endure the losses, Gritman. 

UI insurance also is higher because it doesn’t have a pre-existing condition exclusions like other health insurance companies do. UI must cover every single student taking more than one class that isn’t already covered by a $500,000 policy.

The third reason that UI has to pay more is because insurance is virtually mandatory, you have to purchase it, and so they can charge just about anything they want and you have to pay it. If health insurance was optional, insurance companies would have to lower their rates to attract students and faculty on the lower end of the pay scale, nor would most people buy one million in coverage. 

In my opinion, the simplest way to legally make insurance more affordable would be get the Latah County Government to divert county funds away from Gritman that go to pay for indigent care and return it to University Staff, Students, and Faculty that pay the insurance. Gritman is a non-profit. Or, reduce the $1,000,000 to closer to $100,000 which would be reasonable. 

Gritman benefits from your high premiums and sky-high deductibles because it still gets Idaho State dollars for indigent care regardless of if it uses those funds for indigent care. 

 The County benefits from your high premiums and sky-high deductibles because it doesn’t have to use funds from the general fund to support Gritman, it is more than self sufficient. 

The University benefits from your high premiums and sky-high deductibles because it is immune from the costs of medical lawsuits. 

Local businesses and property owners benefit from it because the County doesn’t have to extract as much money from them in property taxes to pay Gritman for the medical care of indigent students and poorly compensated UI faculty and staff. 

Everyone benefits from this plan, except of course, students, faculty, and staff who have to pay those high premiums and sky-high deductibles. 

Saundra, while many teachers, staff, and students will support your well intentioned efforts, I don’t think you will find many powerful allies in this battle because most of the influential people in Latah are benefiting from this plan directly or indirectly in some way or another and will fight you to keep it in place. 

My suggestion however, would be to petition to change county law because there are only two people you need to convince to change the law. 

Best of Luck to You,

Donovan Arnold

--- On Sun, 9/6/09, Saundra Lund <v2020 at ssl.fastmail.fm> wrote:

From: Saundra Lund <v2020 at ssl.fastmail.fm>
Subject: [Vision2020] UI Student Health Insurance Question
To: "'Moscow Vision 2020'" <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Cc: donovanjarnold2005 at yahoo.com
Date: Sunday, September 6, 2009, 10:11 PM

Visionaries:

Yes, I am on a health insurance kick since finding out the cost for UI employee families is so much higher that it has financially forced something like 68% of employees into a high deductible plan while employees at LCSC, BSU, and ISU continue to have access to quality affordable health insurance.

I've heard rumblings about displeasure with the student health insurance situation.  Donovan, if you're still reading, could you please refresh our memories about what your concerns were?

In any case, when reading through information I was able to find in State Board of Education (SBOE) minutes, it looks like LCSC, BSU, & ISU joined together to form a Student Health Insurance Plan (SHIP) Consortium last fall.

Does anyone know why the UI isn't participating in the SHIP Consortium?  As always, those who don’t wish to comment publicly can be assured of confidentiality regarding anything you share with me privately.

My concern is that by not participating in a larger pool, UI students will face the same kind of ***significantly higher*** premiums and inferior coverage UI employees have been slammed by the last 18 months or so.  It’s a no brainer that if mandatory student health insurance costs go the way of employee health insurance costs at the UI, this would have a negative impact on the UI’s ability to competitively recruit and retain students.

Saundra Lund

Here’s some interesting info that was presented to the SBOE in April:
http://www.boardofed.idaho.gov/meetings/2009/04_16_09/08_BAHR-FIN_April_09.pdf
(pp 57-58)

BACKGROUND/DISCUSSION
As healthcare costs continue to soar, pooling to manage costs through a purchasing consortium is becoming more common among institutions of higher education. When universities band together to purchase student insurance, they can increase their purchasing power and provide higher quality care while increasing the predictability and stability of costs. To that end, in the fall of 2008, Boise State University, Idaho State University, and Lewis and Clark State College joined together to form a Student Health Insurance Plan (SHIP) Consortium.

In addition to piloting the concept of a consortium, the institutions, in conjunction with the Idaho Division of Purchasing, are implementing a procurement
methodology focused on obtaining the “Best Value Vendor” based on research performed at Arizona State University (ASU). ASU has been engaged, using grant funding, to consult with the Consortium on this new methodology.

Once formed, the Consortium developed a project plan and identified major stakeholders, several of whom are now part of the core project team. The project has been divided into three phases:

1. Request for Information (RFI) - Completed
a. An RFI was developed to identify potential barriers to a successful Consortium and to educate the vendor community about the procurement. As part of the RFI, the Consortium held both stakeholder and vendor informational meetings.
2. Request for Proposal (RFP) – Underway
a. The Consortium is currently documenting baseline performance metrics and a measurement plan. The draft RFP will quickly follow.
b. A final RFP will be issued at the end of July 2009
3. Proposal Phase
a. Pre-award is scheduled for November with the final contract to be presented to the Board in April 2010 for approval.

IMPACT
In addition to managing costs while maximizing coverage, the Consortium is using this project as an opportunity to pilot the Best Value procurement process.  The Best Value process embeds post-award reporting to continually measure performance throughout the life of the contract. Both the contractor and the institutions are reviewed to evaluate efficiency in delivery of services.

The benefits of using the Best Value process include increased accountability of vendors and institutions, streamlined internal processes focused on value and efficiency, reduced disputes and litigation, and more transparent processes.

STAFF COMMENTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The RFI vendor meeting was held on January 9, 2009 for the purpose of 

i. Introducing the SHIP Consortium project to potential vendors (20 individuals were in attendance from many vendors)
ii. Introducing the Best Value concept to vendors
iii. Answering questions and addressed comments

Representatives from each school, DOP and from 4 vendors attended the Best Value Conference by Arizona State in Phoenix in February.

Institution representatives will present a brief presentation and will be available for questions.

This consortium of institutions joining together to purchase student insurance, which will provide higher quality care while increasing the predictability and stability of costs, is an example of a method to increase the purchasing power of the institutions that can applied in other areas of operations.

Currently the University of Idaho is not contemplating joining the Consortium and is requesting the Board approve a 5-year contract for student health insurance in a separate agenda. Even though University of Idaho may not be part of the initial statewide SHIP Consortium, they should be able to join at a later time should they decide it is cost beneficial to them while maintaining coverage.
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