Thursday, April 19, 2007
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mandatory student insurance Air Oualitv
enrollmpnt
I Due to rising health care costs
pj student health issues, many
iversities require insurance for
joming students, and UNC
.l.cville is considering a similar
ive for 2008 despite the addi-
nal cost to students.
‘Forty percent of students here
UNC A have no insurance. That
a pretty high rate,” said Rick
\eritz, director of UNC
sheville Health Services. “If you
quire students have proof of
suraiice, that means the insur-
ce companies are going to get a
ge influx of students paying for
A Health insurance. What they can
f ^Ken do is, since they have this
* ^Jiaraiiteed money coming in, they
m lower rates and increase the
licy.”
All students need health insur-
according to Susan Wilson,
ihysician assistant at UNC
sheville Health Services,
j “It is not always manageable for
arents to carry them on their
isurance. For some parents, work
Dcsn’t provide health insurance
• the student may be too old for
le stated plan,” she said,
li UNC Asheville currently pro-
iS (ies the option for students to
up for a voluntary insurance
S an, but few students take advan-
ge of the program, according to
f| j'eritz.
; ihe plan we have now at
JIjNCA is a voluntary ' plan,
roughout the years there have
en between 80 and 100 students
3 year who take the voluntary
ip an,” he said. “If you broke your
i g right now, it is great coverage,
have diabetes and require
cialty care, it’s terrible.”
any leading universities in the
mntry today require students to
,ow proof of insurance prior to
3
enrollment, according to Pyeritz.
“Close to 95 percent of all pri
vate colleges and universities in
the country require health insur
ance for the students. Now about
30 to 35 percent of publics do, and
that is starting to really go up as
people realize insurance rates are
going up and how can we get them
to come down,” he said.
Under the mandatory health
insurance system, students would
be required to show where they
currently have insurance or pur
chase the mandatory plan from the
school. Pyeritz said he estimates
the cost would be between $500
and $575.
“It is a tremendous plan because
a lot of private insurance costs
$400 a month for a similar plan.
This plan will have a medication
card that will help pay for medica
tion. It will cover specialty care
and hospitalization,” he said. “The
other thing is that anything that is
done in the Student Health Service
is covered 100 percent without a
deductible.”
Any pharmaceuticals that
Health Services carry would also
be completely covered, Pyeritz
said.
“A lot of women come here for
their birth control pills. They have
to pay $7 a pack, but now it is
going up to $12. For women that
have the plan, they walk in here, it
doesn’t matter how much the birth
control pills are, it would be cov
ered 100 percent. If they need
some antibiotics and we have that
antibiotic in stock, it would be
covered. Lab work that we do here
would be covered 100 percent,” he
said.
The additional cost to students
deters some from supporting the
idea, Wilson said.
“It would be an added expense
to an already rising cost of going
to college.
Tuition expenses are up, and so
is the price of health care,” she
said.
The cost remains the biggest
concern for some students.
“I don’t know about it being
required. 1 am currently uninsured
and would appreciate getting
insured,” said Elizabeth Guthrie,
senior literature student. “I feel
like there should be some sort of
individual
consideration
of peoples’
financial sta
tus. It is
adding $500 a
year when
tuition is only
$3000 a year.
It would be a
great thing if
they could
swing it, 1
just don’t
Dr. Firic INciirz
know if everybody could.”
The benefits from insurance out
weigh its costs, according to
Wilson.
“I would hate to see a student
have to drop out of school to get a
full-time Job to have to pay off
medical care expenses that could
have been covered by the health
plan,” she said.
Both Pyeritz and Wilson said
health care is a serious issue in the
United States.
“Health insurance companies
themselves price premiums so
high that it essentially makes it
unaffordable for parents to carry
children on their health plan,”
Wilson said. “People are getting
laid off, people are losing their
jobs, plants are closing or having
major cutbacks and parents are
losing their insurance. It is just
very expensive to go out and pur
chase a health care plan on your
own.
The government needs to take
an active roll in health care,
Pyeritz said.
“The government should be
paying for our health care. We are
the only developed country in the
world that does not provide health
care for all of its citizens,” he said.
“Back when 1 used to be teaching
here, 1 used to talk about health
care in America and what it is like.
I asked students what is the main
reason for the existence of insur
ance companies. It is to make
money for its stockholders.
Secondary is providing health
care.”
People in the United States pay
more for health care than any
other developed country in the
world, Pyeritz said.
“1 heard a report recently where
if you combine the 10 countries
,below us and what they pay for
health care, it just about equals
what the United States does, and
we don’t have any better health
care than anywhere else in the
world,” Pyeritz said. “In fact,
other places have better longevity
statistics and better quality of care
and quality of life. It costs more in
the United States, and it is inferior
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
new tool for scientists, develop
ers, policymakers and citizens to
understand and evaluate impor
tant development decisions, like
where the state should place new
(X)wer plants in a given region.
“When a city government, for
example, needs to calculate how
to be in compliance with EPA
mandates, they
could run this ((
model and use
the resulting
something that’s very important,”
Ribarsky said.
So many factors intluence air
quality, which makes it difficult
for citizens and policy-makers to
understand the rese;irch, accord
ing to Stevens. What the visual
grid does is create an environ
ment where people can see how
all the factors
come together,
rather than look
ing at lots of
John S tkvkns
Director of Fjn\ironmcntal
MtKleling & Analv.sis (Icntcr,
"iWe
] Ashc\illc
care.
Health care is important,
whether students realize it or not,
Wilson said.
“The mindset of most people is,
‘It will never happen to me,’ ” she
said. “If you talk to a student who
ran into some major medical
expenses and had to quit college
or having to live with major health
problems that were unable to be
dealt with because of medical
expenses, I think those people
would say, ‘Yes, it is worth it.’”
information,” I’d if fp fi^fe at UNCA, tables and charts
Ribarsky said, fj^f ujs^CA doesn’t have any phase
These i^e also fpf ff j upg^f fhpf pm- the project will
results that the j i ivmi.
., own campus doesn t have
community , r
and communi-‘'P«"’^
ty leaders can
look at and say,
‘Yes, we want
this here’ or
not.”
A handful of
UNC Asheville
students partic
ipated in a
statewide
course on grid visual grid is as much to ,
coSUfd^^o get people communicating and a
the project tihartng ideas as it is to get
along with a computers together.
number of
13ILL RihAR,SKY
include the con
struction of a
visualization
wall. The
$1()(),()0() pro
posed wall will
show the results
of the simulations
and will be one of
the top walls of
its kind in the
country, accord
ing to Stevens.
“I’d like it to be
For more information, email
shac.unca @ gmail.com.
Ktrlf UNC I ofVis^uaJ (Jrid Project,
Charlotte, UNCa CAhai lotte
according to
Stevens and
Ribarsky.
“What we want to do is have
some aspect of the project that
students can understand and par
ticipate in, even undergraduates,
because maybe they’ll decide that
this is a career they’ll want to
pursue. Generally, the project has
them developing skills that will
be useful and educate them about
but UNCA does
n’t have any
space for it,”
Stevens said.
“I’m upset that
our own campus
doesn’t have
space for it, but
it’ll probably go
downtown or out at Enka.”
The visualization project brings
together scientists and artists
from across the Asheville-
Charlotte region, according to
Ribarsky.
‘The visual grid is as much to
get people communicating and
sharing ideas as it is to get com
puters together,” Ribarsky said.
X vWCK SASfff
STRIVE HOT TO ORIVE 2007
ii
Friday, April 2Dth Strive Not to Drive Day
Get Registered NOW! at www.gettingarounct*wiiccom
If registefiecl get a Free breakfast on April 20tli &
enter dravdng to WIN PRIZES
• $250 Liberty Bicycle Gift Card
• Tickets to Tweetsie RarilToad, Biltmore Estate & Cbimoey Rock
• Prizes from Malaprops, Asheville Regional Airport,
Black Mountain Bistro, AsbeviUe Pizza, and Town Hardware
IX
Ride with the Chancellor Ponder Join us for the ridel
Interested contact: ykoslen@unca.edu
STRIWE NOT
FREE Bike Tune-ups on the Ouad all day
Car/VanpooL Bike, Walk or Take Transit
Strive Not to Drive 5th Annual Film Festivid 7:00 p.m*
Alumni Hall, Highsmitb Center - Free Popcorn
Get Registered NOW to Win Prizes & FREE Breakfast
Saturday, April 21, 2007 9:15 a*m, - 1^ p,m.
How to Leave Vour Car At Home:
Using a Bicycle for Transportation Workshop
For more info: Claudianix(®libertyb{kes,com or S28-274-2453
] I'l
www.gettingaround-wnc.com
GREENFEST & GREEN GAMES
EARTHFEST!
April 16-20, 2007
April 28, 2007
April 17, 2007, 8:00 p.m. — Inconvenient Truth on the Quad
April 19, 2007,10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m, — Exotic Invasive Removal
meet infront of Dinning Hall
April 20, 2007, 10:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. — Dumpster Dive on the Quad
A community festival to benefit the Naluire Conservancy.
Rummage Sale, musitv activist Dave Foreman, and mewe...
XX- 1
Now through April 28, 2007
Bring rummage sale donatimis to S6A office
(Highsmith 249)
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