ASMSU considers alternative health care

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As the national debate over health care continues, ASMSU officials said they are considering giving MSU students more health insurance options and hope to implement a low-cost plan that would rival the one currently offered by the university.

ASMSU is MSU’s undergraduate student government.

The possibility of implementing such a plan was announced Thursday at a meeting of the Student Assembly’s Policy Committee. Although specifics have not yet been discussed, Student Assembly Chairperson Kyle Dysarz said the group likely will act as a middleman by negotiating a plan with an insurance company and facilitating a connection between interested students and the company. The group also is looking into offering a plan because about 20 percent of MSU students are without health insurance, Dysarz said.

He said ASMSU would neither handle students’ money nor have to pay for any aspect of the plans.

“We should be doing anything we can to help students with financial demands (and) making sure we’re promoting health and safety initiatives,” he said.

Dysarz said talks within the university about making health insurance mandatory for all students as well as ASMSU’s push for student health and safety initiatives are the driving forces behind the group looking into offering a health insurance plan to students. He said the group will stay abreast of decisions MSU makes regarding student health issues and factor them into negotiating a new plan for students.

“Now that we got the ball rolling, we need to continue to make progress on this issue,” Dysarz said. “How long it’s going to take is up in the air, but we’re going to get conversations going as fast as possible.”

ASMSU hopes to be able to offer a plan that would not only be cheaper than the current plan offered to students by the university through insurance provider Aetna Inc., but broader in coverage as well. The group also hopes to continue to offer the health insurance to students even after graduation, ASMSU spokesperson Portia McKenzie said. The insurance plan currently offered through the university does not extend past graduation.

“Our insurance that we’re hoping to be able to provide through ASMSU … would carry over past graduation,” McKenzie said. “We’re basically trying to make our coverage more extensive than the university’s.”

University spokesman Terry Denbow did not return phone calls Sunday.

The group currently is in the process of working with agencies to scope out potential insurance providers. Dysarz said specifics will not be known until ASMSU can negotiate a plan, which will be contingent upon which provider the group settles on.

Laura Warbelow, a social relations and policy senior, said it is important for ASMSU to pursue the possibility of offering a low-cost health insurance plan to students in light of the national health care debate and economic problems. Warbelow said she is under her parents’ health insurance plan.

“I think any option for students to have lower cost health care is a good idea,” Warbelow said.

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