Budget cuts for California education: cutting needed health care to save $4 to $5 million.
One of the attractive qualities of UCLA are these kinds of benefits, especially because so few other campuses offer them. If you know of any UCLA grads, please have them fill out the feedback form. Thank you.
http://www.today.ucla.edu/portal/ut/important-questions-and-answers-78376.aspx
http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/campus-budget.aspx
& Call your rep: https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml
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From:
UCLA Student Health Advisory Committee <shac-l@lists.ucla.edu> Date: Mon, Nov 30, 2009 at 7:35 AM
Subject: Potential Implications for UCLA Graduate Students
To:
dgperry@ucla.edu
Dear UCLA Graduate Students,The UCLA Student Health Advisory Committee (SHAC) would like to bring to your attention some potential changes to the structure and coverage of the UCLA Graduate Student Health Insurance Plan (GSHIP). BackgroundA UC system-wide workgroup was convened in August 2008 to reduce the notable variance in the cost of student health insurance from campus to campus. The range of 2008-2009 costs was from $1338-$2518 (88% difference). The workgroup has recommended establishing a university-wide policy for all Graduate Student Health Insurance Plans (GSHIPs). The purpose of this policy initiative is a supposed $4M-$5M total in savings across the 11 campuses. Potential Implications for UCLA Graduate StudentsBased on the limited information currently available to our committee, SHAC is unable to exactly predict the outcomes of the proposed measures. However, at this juncture, SHAC and the! Graduate Student Association (GSA) believe that a system-wide GSHIP plan could potentially increase costs and decrease benefits for UCLA graduate and professional students.This campus has one of the most comprehensive, exhaustive, and renowned healthcare services of any university nationwide. UCLA's GSHIP currently provides the most progressive dependent care, mental health services, and extended gap care and pharmacy benefits of any other UC campus. Loss of these services would have a perceptible impact on graduate and professional students' ability to complete their research and degree programs. (italics added) Furthermore, UCLA would likely be subsidizing the proposed savings, which would be going to smaller campuses. SHAC SurveyIn the coming weeks and months, SHAC intends to work very closely with our campus representatives and our representatives to the workgroup to advocate for policies that reflect the priorities of UCLA Graduate Students. In order to represe! nt you to the full extent of our capacity, SHAC would like to ! solicit your feedback on these potential changes. Please take a few minutes to complete the following 7-question survey:http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=cRkU_2b0HMbNh43Zj4j3pG9g_3d_3d
More information is available through the SHAC and GSA websites: http://sites.google.com/site/shacucla/
