higher initial premium instead of opting for the lowest possible projected premium. And the greater question: Who is steering this SHIP? Not until August, one full year after the Aon Hewitt-devised premium projections went into effect, did the UC SHIP management team dump Aon Hewitt for Alliant Insurance Services. YOU’RE THE PROUD OWNER OF A $57 MILLION DEFICIT, NOW WHAT? In order to duck responsibility for initiating such a calamitous program, the UC Office of the President drew up some interesting proposals that are sure to make Mark Yudof the darling of the California college student: Increase premiums. Cut benefits. Or do both. Alongside those lovely options, his office has another goody: increase coinsurance from 10 percent to 20 percent. Translation: if UC SHIP students undergo
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surgery or have an in-patient stay at a hospital, they have to contribute 20 percent of the cost rather than the current 10 percent. Apparently, being the “nation’s largest student health insurance plan” is a surefire way to earn the title of the nation’s most expensive student health insurance plan, considering that the point in creating a student health insurance plan would be to make it less expensive than private market insurance. In a memo, UC Santa Barbara’s Student Health Service projected a 5-year premium increase of 26 percent for 2013-2014 (somewhere in the area of , followed by increases 11.3 percent, 8.5 percent, 6.8 percent, and 4.9 percent over the next four years. UC Davis owns just under 20% of the deficit: $10 million, the Davis Beat reported. To quell the large campus deficit, UC Davis SHIP users are expecting a $444 fee increase for health insurance. Sadly, the shockwave
of premium increases that UC students can expect in 2013-2014 aren’t unprecedented when evaluating the private insurance market. In May 2010, Anthem Blue Cross of California increased rates 39% on individual policyholders. However, the cause of Anthem’s increase and the UC SHIP increase are very different. THE ICEBERG If, by random chance, you thought that the UC Office of the President’s oversight failures were the only problem facing SHIP, you’d be dead wrong. Given the proposals to cut benefits and/or increase premiums are fulfilled, the University of California is essentially grabbing a shovel and digging a six-feet hole to bury itself. Here’s the dilemma that many students will face: your health insurance premium for UC SHIP is as high or higher than many of the private market insurers, your coinsurance rate is higher and the services cov-