Proposal considers lowering financial aid for students who waive Gaucho Health Insurance, replacing it with ‘industry average’ aid
A recent proposal from the Financial Aid Office considers lowering the amount of financial aid that students who have waived Gaucho Health Insurance receive.
The Financial Aid Office has recently proposed a plan to reduce financial aid benefits to students who waive the Gaucho Health Insurance (GHI) for the 2015-2016 academic year.
Under the proposed plan, students receiving financial aid who waive GHI will receive less money than those who keep university student health insurance and will instead receive aid based on a student survey-based “industry average” determined by the university. UCSB has the most expensive health insurance plan in the UC system at around $2,568 per year ($856 per quarter) for the next academic year, and up to 50 percent of students waive this plan every school year.
GHI Advisory Committee Budget Officer Mike Anderson said the plan exists to better allocate financial aid resources to students in need.
“If a student already has insurance then the financial aid office will take that money and give it to others who are financially struggling,” Anderson said. “They need the GHI Plan and can increase their financial aid package. I tend to believe it would be a benefit especially to those who are staying in the GHI Plan and refocus those funds to those students.”
However, according to A.S. President and fourth-year sociology and psychology double major Ali Guthy, the Financial Aid Board wrongly assumes students receiving financial aid do not need the money given for health insurance.
“If you remove the funding for health insurance because you waived the Gaucho Health Insurance does not mean you have the money for health insurance. You may still need that money to pay for the other health insurance,” Guthy said. “Students who waive out of health insurance are not incurring that cost for health insurance or have a family plan.”
Providing less benefits will provide more incentive for people to get GHI which equals more money for them. But this isn’t really anything new — fucking over the college kids to make more money. Can’t really say that I’m surprised. —Andrew Okeh
A.S. is currently working with the Financial Aid Office to reach an agreement to avoid cutting the financial aid benefits for student health insurance.
First-year computer science major Andrew Okeh said he believes the plan does not benefit students and instead profits the university.
“Since when are less benefits ever good?” Okeh said. “The people who are involved with the board, it’s good for them because providing less benefits will provide more incentive for people to get GHI which equals more money for them. But this isn’t really anything new — fucking over the college kids to make more money. Can’t really say that I’m surprised.”
First-year environmental studies major Navpreet Khabra said she also opposes the proposal because she believes that the aid students receive specifically allocated to health insurance is valuable to students who opt out of GHI.
“By lowering their financial aid award, it could offset the money that they would have saved,” Khabra said. “I personally was able to use the money saved from waiving GHI for other educational expenses such as textbooks and transportation.”
According to Anderson, however, if students waive GHI it implies they have more affordable health insurance plans.
“If people waive out then they have other health insurance, it’s already in the family budget and calculated for,” Anderson said. “Because they have health insurance, they’ll waive out. There’s a large percentage of students who don’t have health insurance like students overseas. It’s something we’re exploring. It may or may not happen.”
Austin Bernales/Daily Nexus
According to Guthy, she and the Internal Vice President Angela Lau have reached a compromise with the Financial Aid Board that would allow students to possibly alter their financial aid award under certain financial circumstances.
“Let’s say the industry average is $1,500 and if you pay more than that, you could go to the financial aid office to adjust that,” Guthy said. “We reached a verbal agreement on our meeting on Friday so I’m pretty sure that’s what we’re doing.”
Anderson said the plan will be ultimately beneficial because it will help students who are financially struggling by expanding the available limits on general financial aid funding.
“Financial aid offices run out of money. They give out grants and scholarships and then are left with loans. They could give those grants to those who are having a tougher time and I think that would be a good thing,” Anderson said. “I tend to believe it would be a benefit especially to those who are staying in the GHI Plan and refocus those funds to those students.”
First-year economics and accounting major Paige Donaldson however said the plan is “terrible” because it does not help students save money.
“I waived the health insurance because I couldn’t afford it, so how would cutting my financial aid do any good?” Donaldson said. “Either way it’s a trap to make us pay more and make money off of us, but students are not to be treated like walking money bags to make a profit.”
Having to pay for GHI in order to receive the funds I need just to be able to attend this school is a sure fire way to alienate a large portion of the student body. Low key, fuck GHI. —Willie Roman
Willie Roman, a first-year English and economics double major said he’s surprised the plan is even being considered.
“Personally, as a student from a low income household, my financial aid is absolutely critical, and stretched thin as it is,” Roman said. “Having to pay for GHI in order to receive the funds I need just to be able to attend this school is a sure fire way to alienate a large portion of the student body. Low key, fuck GHI.”
According to Guthy however, the Financial Aid Board has been open to working with the student body to enact reasonable financial aid policy and are hoping students participate in the upcoming surveys.
“Financial Aid Office is sending out a survey to gauge the industry average and collect more data. They won’t erase the funding entirely but will lessen it to the industry average,” Guthy said. “We encourage people to do the survey to give students time to prepare for this change. I think we’ve reached a good conclusion.”
Anderson, said a decision regarding the proposal, whose rising costs are due to the Affordable Health Care Act, will be made in the next few weeks.
“We’re trying to wrap it up here in the next few weeks,” Anderson said. “There used to be caps on the benefits of each person. It’s getting expensive because the Affordable Health Care act put no caps on the benefits.”
A version of this story appeared on page 1 of Thursday, February 12, 2015’s print edition of the Daily Nexus.
I’m sorry, but this is a blatant scheme to make even more money off of students. It’s a bit shocking that this course of action would even be considered, as it will lower the financial aid of most students by about one thousand dollars. While I’m glad that A.S. is at least doing something to ameliorate this issue, fighting to just have financial aid based upon the average cost of health insurance is simply not enough. It’s a bit alarming that an issue this serious is being dealt with by a bunch of greedy school officials and students who come… Read more »
Are you guys freaking serious. The reason we drop GHI is to get more out of our financial aid.
This is ridiculous. The health care here is fucking overpriced as hell and you’re seriously telling me that despite being covered by both of my parents’ health insurance plans, I have to pay for this shit if I want to keep all my financial aid? That’s bullshit. I barely get enough to cover GHI now (which is why I waive it), and now they’re going to take that aid away? Fuck that.
I found Mike Anderson’s email lets express our anger to him personally. mike.anderson@sa.ucsb.edu
The school does realize that the rising costs are ALSO happening in private insurance!? My copay went up to $40 for a visit and even a strep throat test isn’t fully coverage and cost me $25….for a doctor who I can only see if I set an appointment over a week in advance because he is impacted. Middle and lower economic class students are getting fucked by this policy. Everyone’s banks are being hit, even the schools, but this is not the right thing to do.
Part of the financial aide received is to cover GHI, if you opt out and still receive the money it is not right. Many of our instate students who opt out get free medical then they keep the financial aide for the insurance. This merely closes a loop hole students were using to take increased money from the school. Plus the school is correct to discourage opting out of GHI which drives up price (to the highest in the UC) and allows students with insurances like Kaiser to come even though the closest med facility that they can see is… Read more »
We go through hell every year to prove our student has coverage though us and doesn’t need to utilize UCSB student health to waive the fee of over $2,500 per year. Now they want to extort the fee from us by threatening our tiny little aid which we get. That’s so ridiculous. We don’t need your f—-g health insurance but we sure as hell need some aid to pay your f—-g tuition which keeps going up. So glad our student has only a year left in UC system. To all the future college parents out there, go PRIVATE!!!!!
I’m a student here and at first I was opposed to this, but after reconsidering it seems fair. A chunk of the financial aid is intended for healthcare expenses. If someone already has healthcare coverage under their parents’ employers’ plan, then they don’t need additional money for a healthcare plan, and this money should be given to students who do have additional healthcare plan expenses. That money is intended to be used exclusively for healthcare (I suppose it’s the equivalent of an earmark), not for having your own car, getting more money out of financial aid, etc. If someone has… Read more »
Does David and Under Graduate who have commented not know the definition of Financial Aid: There are several types of financial aid, including grants and scholarships, work study and loans. No one wants free money for GHI especially since most have to PAY for it in the end! It’s double coverage that’s not necessary and a complete waste of money for the ALREADY insured students. The UC system is once again finding ways to extort money from the already struggling students by infusing fear and making them buy their GHI or risk the aid (very small at best for most… Read more »
The poor grammar and disjointed sentences really make your bad argument even worse. There is no extortion you keep repeating the word but fail to understand its meaning. You cannot see the whole issue. I know you might receive less and it sucks but there are more sides and important facts than just you getting less free money.
For all of you people saying that if you are covered by your parent’s insurance you should not get as much financial aid is a very ignorant thing to say. For one thing my parents, yes they are as I am very fortunate to be covered by health insurance through their work but they pay less in health insurance for my entire family than one year in UC and it covers more than USHIP. Paying for it is an onus if you are not insured I get that, however I cannot afford to get less financial aid just cause of… Read more »
This is ridiculous. Most of the time I pay the health insurance with loan and no one want to be in debt over insurance that is hardly used! I mean it’s not even open on weekends!! I use the money I saved from waving my insurance for books and tuition that are going higher and re-selling books doesn’t even give you that much back. This is just wrong ! If anything they should lower the cost of insurance since it is the highest UC insurance!
I wonder this will happen at all UC campuses or just at UCSB. This is a terrible idea, another proof of the school ripping money out of students pocket, President Obama has said the government has tried to bring down the cost of attendance and by forcing students to pay for UC health fee in addition to what their parents had paid to their employers for their kids to be covered is absolutely immoral. Shame on them, really I could not think of anything worse to say how I feel about those in charge.