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By Editoral Staff
Arizona Daily Wildcat
November 4, 1996
The UA mandates that all international students purchase the university insurance policy. Many foreign students are frustrated with the policy, but looking at the facts shows that administration may be right.
A year-and-a-half ago, the university mandated that all international students purchase the college's own insurance policy. Many students were forced to abandon their country's more extensive insurance plan for the university's policy. This compulsory rule has spurned disdain in many foreign students. Their argument is compelling as one international student asked, "Instead of keeping my good insurance, I have to take yours?"
On the surface, international students seem to have a case. Further probing into the UA's actions, however, shows that the administration may be right.
A federal regulation mandates that all international students with J-visas be insured during their stay in the states. Any post-secondary educational system housing an international student without insurance is liable for the student's health. So, if Helga from Sweden comes to State University without insurance and suddenly, her cochlea bursts, State University is not only shelling out for her medical bills, but gets slapped with a $50,000 fine.
Now, once the students have insurance from their home country, after they come here, they may drop that insurance at any time without having to notify the university. Two minutes and a colon burst later, the university is again dipping into the money pot.
So the UA kills two money-sucking disasters with one policy: Make every international student pay for the same insurance. Exempting certain students with better foreign insurance is legal discrimination anyway.
Moreover, the UA policy is comparable to insurance offered by other Tucson companies. UA insurance costs $606 per year, offers $50,000 maximum coverage and a $500 deductible. American Family Insurance in Tucson costs more per person per year, $720 for males, $943 for females, but offers $2 million maximum coverage with a $500 deductible.
The UA policy covers less, but costs less. Ian C. Prentice, owner of American Family Insurance and UA graduate, says, "No, I don't think [the students] are getting ripped off. It depends on their preference." Foreign students do not receive a high maximum coverage, but the cost per year is low.
One international student, Maria Karlsson Gillespie, offers an alternative. She wants the UA to form a program that has private insurance companies notify the college if international students drop their own policy. The students' private policy could be extended for a certain time while they search for new insurance. No money-sucking disasters, no fines.
The problem is that such a program brings up an equally disturbing dilemma of funding. Programs need personnel, office space and money to pay for it all. Where will the money come from? It can come from fundraising, or the two words that will have cochleae bursting all over campus, tuition hikes.
Are UA students willing to pay higher tuition so 2,200 international students can have their own insurance?
International students come here knowing the rules. The administration has been cooperative and sympathetic in that they have formed committees to answer the students' questions and explain the situation.
They have also promised to explore other options soon, but as Joyce Meder, a clinic administrator at the Campus Health Center, says, "Nothing in a university gets done overnight."
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