Editor:

Recently, there have been many articles in the Wildcat on Partners Health insurance imposed upon foreign students, and as a foreign student myself I have something to say on this matter. Right now we are forced to buy Partners Health insurance on campus, which is really a bad deal. It does not cover dental cost, and there is copayment if you become sick on the weekend and have to go to other hospitals. If you decide to go overseas during summer (which many foreign students do) or decide to go to Mexico on the weekend, this insurance will not cover the first $500. I could easily find a better policy than this. I agree that everybody should be covered, but I would like to be able to choose an insurance policy which I think is reasonable, instead of being forced to buy a rip-off policy on campus. One of the excuses that came from the director of Student Health and Wellness was that if you allow foreign students to bring a policy from their own country, they might cancel it anytime to get money back, and there is no way the school can keep track of it. If that is the major concern, why not make foreign students sign a piece of paper or something? I am sure that with the tremendous number of lawyers we have in society, we can come up with a good way to prevent this.

Or is it possible that the foreign students are an important source of money, and the school is trying to come up with any possible excuse to keep forcing Partners Health plan upon vulnerable foreign students?

Yumi Daimaru
political science senior