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Please. This fee, which is so out of whack with standard business practice (also, note, standard businesses don't stay in business very long after engaging in the kind of financial mismanagement Cornell did for its health services), is going to have an impact on real people. Not to mention that the University is using this fee to pay for an expansion that its customer base neither wanted nor asked for! But, to be clear, the University obviously feels the need to justify the fee as they are scrambling to do so now. Please see: Cornell Daily Sun for full coverage on the events; that's far from mind-boggling . At the end of the day, the students/their parents are the University's customer base. If the University wants to keep these customers happy (note, while the University's enrollment base may not be hurt much by this move, decisions like this threaten the University's bottom line in another way, specifically via alumni support), they better justify this decision better than they have been.
Major Schoos with university healthcare systems and a substantial out of state student base have been challenged by the lack of portability of parent's insurance, all along.
Imagine the university overhead incurred to determine what is and is not covered when students present with thousands of different out of state plans that change by state law and plan, each year.
Except that Cornell knows that the great majority of students will go their entire academic career without stepping into a health care facility, whether on campus or off campus. And, at the end of the day, those who do use the services may use it once or twice and are paying out of pocket less than $350 once you factor in co-pays, etc. (the University could've simply increased non-University plan enrollee co-pays accordingly). So the point about saving students money via this new system is a bit dubious. This goes for students with the University's coverage and for those with outside coverage.
But, let's be clear about something: a huge portion of this fee (specifically, $200) isn't going to be used for "expanding services" as the University claims, but will go toward paying off debt incurred by the University's health services due to financial mismanagement.
Also, please do provide evidence to support that this approach is common among universities. From what I'm finding, Cornell's approach is very much uncommon, hence the popular outrage.
Also, today's health insurance market often is very interconnected with Obamacare. This is because Obamacare instituted several requirements that health insurance companies have to cover and charge for, even if the insured doesn't want them. That has a direct impact on the cost of plans and is a huge reason why rates are increasing in many states at a pace higher than before this act was enacted, this despite Obama saying that the average family would save "$2,500" on premiums under the law.
Actually that is untrue, students regularly use a college's health care facilities. It is much easier to go there and explain why your pee burns after having sex with someone than to not worry about it.
Except that most Cornell undergraduate students don't use the University's health services as is and, to the extent that they do use the system and have their own private insurance, are already paying an upfront fee to use the University's health services (this is largely out of pocket, but some students' insurance will reimburse them for the fee). Note, I bring up undergraduate students as most graduate students are already on the University's health plans.
And its great that you're concerned about students "receiving something in exchange for the fee," but the point is that many feel that this should be the choice of the students and their families. At the end of the day, most Cornell students I know using the ER or other non-University health services on their outside health insurance plans are NOT paying $350 in a year; and this doesn't get into the fact that most don't seem to use any medical services throughout their 4 year stint at the University. This is highway robbery meant largely to finance an expansion that most students didn't ask for. Don't penalize students for the University's financial mismanagement (note, in addition to paying for an expansion that most students didn't ask for, a significant chunk of this $350 fee is being used to pay for debt that is the result of the University biting off more than it could chew as far as expenses go).
And please do provide evidence to support that the service fee is something that is "rather common" at schools throughout the US. From what I am finding, this fee is very uncommon.
Note, I write what I write as someone who is VERY familiar with Cornell
Most insurance cognizant parents who opt out of
university healthcare plans, make it clear to their adult children to use the ER so the expense has a shot of being partially reimbursed, assuming the plan/ state qualifies it as an emergency.
Cornell, like many schools, found themselves in deep financial doo- doo for a variety of reasons, including over expansion and trying to be all things to all people, all the time- beyond the scope of this thread.
I cannot imagine the cost associated with managing reimbursement for thousands of plans from 50 states with unique laws. At some point, the cost is not worth the reimbursement. So the schools eat it.
Too bad the school did not allow their communication majors to devise a strategy for communicating this change to the student body.
That's exactly the point, and is why 70% of undergraduates at Cornell DO NOT choose to enroll in the school's health plan; its too expensive.
Cornell's fee for SHIP is $500-1000 less than many competing schools.
Cornell, like most comparable universities, maintains a " hard waiver" program, whereby the student has to prove by statement that their non SHiP plan will cover at least X % of costs and is in effect. It rather common for families/ students to check the box and instruct the student to use an ER for any medical needs.
Attending an out of state school is a choice.
All choices have consequences.
If this was the school our daughter was attending it would be a Penalty Fee for having our own insurance.
Our daughter is fully covered for all regular medical expenses, has her own doctor and is part of the local participating HMO for the state she is residing in while going to college. All thru our families insurance plan.
It's exactly like she was living at home.
She has EXACTLY the same coverage she had before she went off to college.
Milage varies.
Not all states/ plans cover all medical for out of state students.
More specifically, not all HMOs cover non- emergency qualified , out of state, medical services/ treatments.
The whole deal with insurance, all insurance, is that people have a tendency to assume all insurance is alike.
If this were the case, schools would not have needed to maintain a " hard waiver" program.
If you have insurance from somewhere else and decline the student insurance offered by Cornell, they're going to charge a $350 fine (I mean fee). So you get billed for not using their service.
That's a good point, but if they raised tuition by the amount while at the same time holding constant financial aid that would do the trick, just becomes a manipulation of two numbers rather than one ... and even if its the same money people would be a lot less upset about the increase than being explicitly nickel-and-dimed (Lincoln-and-Benjamined?) on this.
In theory, yes. But I argue that Cornell would run into contractual/legal issues there. Like other Ivy League universities, Cornell has promised to meet the full financial need of students qualifying for financial aid. Students choose to attend Cornell and other universities for this reason, among other reasons. Thus, it wouldn't be so simple for Cornell to raise tuition by this amount while holding financial aid steady.
Actually that is untrue, students regularly use a college's health care facilities. It is much easier to go there and explain why your pee burns after having sex with someone than to not worry about it.
No, most Cornell students do not use the University's health services. And those who do use the University's health services have insurance to cover their visits (they cannot enroll in the University without having health insurance plans that meet a certain requirement). While there may be a co-pay that varies depending on the coverage of a particular health care plan and, I didn't exactly hear of students paying anywhere close to $350 throughout the year out of pocket. Ultimately, though, I've explained why so many are outraged by this plan by the University.
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. At the end of the day, the students/their parents are the University's customer base. If the University wants to keep these customers happy (note, while the University's enrollment base may not be hurt much by this move, decisions like this threaten the University's bottom line in another way, specifically via alumni support), they better justify this decision better than they have been.
